I had the chance to visit the crematorium where the ashes of my maternal grandparents are stored. On looking out to one of the hills in the cemetery, one can see that it’s literally covered with graves. Burial is being replaced by cremation nowadays, due to the lengthy procedure and high cost of maintaining a grave. People have begun to accept cremation more and more as a dignified way to be preserved. My grandparents share the same tablet, which has golden lettering and is very respectable.

When I was young, I looked up to my grandfather the most. He was the smartest person I knew, and taught me lots of little odds and ends. He was born and raised in China, and entered one of the few universities there after high school. Being able to attend university was quite an accomplishment back then, and he only had one year left before the civil war broke out. He joined the ill-fated Nationalist side, where he would have had a chance at being a commissioned officer had there not been a need for English speaking Chinese people. He spoke English fluently, so he was used as a translator for the British troops. He was shot in the arm once, which he recovered from, and fled to Hong Kong to avoid prosecution when the war was over. There he met and married my grandmother, who was born and raised in Hong Kong, fled to Viet Nam during the Japanese invasion, but came back to Hong Kong once it was over. My grandfather assumed a career as a meteorologist, and my grandmother became a housewife to three daughters and one son. They both lived long in Hong Kong until they passed away.