Eulogy from Patty:

My brothers and sister have already welcomed you. I wanted to add my thanks to theirs and say thank you so much to the people here for the love and concern you have shown to my family over the past several weeks. Thank you to Pastor Wong and the whole CPC congregation for praying with us and for us. Thank you to my brothers many doctor friends for visiting my mom, caring for her, and taking the time to talk with us about her. And a special thank you to my husband Ken, my children, and my own dear friends, for putting up with me and for your many acts of love. I will always remember the things you said and did to help me during this time. We have felt God to be very near and my brothers and sister and I have cherished the chance to be together with our family.

In planning the service, my siblings and I agreed that I should give the eulogy. But I had to promise not to cry. Pray that I make it. We also discussed the format. My brother suggested a Top Ten listthe top 10 reasons my mom was the greatest mom in the world. But in fact the list would be far longer than 10. We decided to organize this talk in the same way as my fathers eulogy last Junethree major lessons Ive learned from my mothers life.

I wish you all had had the chance to know my mom. My father had a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. My mother was shy, but those who knew her well loved her very intensely. She was kind, wise, smart, and could be incredibly funny. She was a delight to spend time with and always optimistic. My mother taught me something very important, that cheerfulness is the most important form of courage. My mother believed that cheerfulness is not a state of mind, but a habit of mind and an act of will. You couldnt resolve all of your problems, but you could accept them and thank God regardless. My parents early married life could not have been easythey were broke, new to the United States, and coping with a new job and a new baby. Then within the first year of their marriage, my father fell ill from tuberculosis and was sent for a year to the TB hospital in Salem, Oregon. But my mother never spoke of that time as a hardship. Instead she spoke of the kindness of their long time friends, the solicitude of my dads boss, and how happy she was when Dad got well. She talked of taking my sisterwho was still a babyand holding her up outside the hospital window so my dad could see her, since Gloria couldnt go inside. My mom talked of the robins on the lawn of the hospital and how beautiful that spring was. She embodied that verse of the Bible, whatever the circumstances, I have learned to be content.

My mother believed that you should look for the good in people, and focus on that. If you couldnt say something nicewell, in a small town you can end up being quiet a lot. My father was always the one with the big ideas, and my mother the one who focused him and advised him, to try to get things done. She didnt criticize him, but instead tried to channel his boundless energy and enthusiasm. Together they were able to accomplish some wonderful things, founding three charities that ultimately provided hundreds of people with jobs, food, and shelter. With our family, my mom always encouraged us to try our best, and not to be discouraged if we failed, whether in running for student government, playing sports, or later, trying for great jobs. My mom will forever be the standard in my life of love and acceptance.

The second most important lesson my mom taught me is that the surest source of happiness is fulfilling your responsibilities to the people who rely on you. Duty, honor, responsibilitythese were the values that she lived. As one of our friends pointed out, however, the difficulty often lies in determining exactly who relies on you, and what your responsibilities might be. My mother didnt think about this only in the abstract, but in fact made many difficult decisions. Clearly, the hardest decision of my mothers life was to drop out of the Ph.D. program and marry my father. If you look at the memorial boards in the reception hall next door, you will see a letter from one of my mothers professors, Dr. Fincke, which sheds a great deal of light on my mothers state of mind at that crossroads. One sentence stands out, I know that you would never feel happy if you felt that you had shirked your duty. My mother thought very seriously about her responsibilities to those who had been her mentors in graduate school, about promises made, but ultimately came down on the side of love and relationships. Once the decision had been made she never looked back with regret, but worked to fulfill her responsibilities on a daily basis. Her relationship with her family was a long string of promises made and promises kept. She was deeply unselfish as well as the epitome of organization. Shuttling four children around, I often wonder how she never forgot to pick any of us up. Or how she avoided the temptation to just leave us somewhere. We had the sense that our Mom was always thinking of us, and never forgot us. Her reliability was the basis of our ability to trust others.

Beyond her family, my mom also felt a great deal of responsibility towards her friends, and taught us to feel the same way about our friends. She believed that we owed a debt of loyalty to our friends. My mother was a very good friend all through her lifekeeping confidences, giving excellent advice, and providing any help she could, whether material or spiritual. I spoke last week with my moms best friend from girlhood, Young Hi, who said that one of the reasons she had only one child was that she felt if Karen could have a friend like Sang Won, she wouldnt need a sister. To her, to others who wanted to be here, and especially to those who are here, thank you for all that your friendship meant to my mom, and for remembering her.

The third lesson my mom taught me is that kind words count, but kind actions count more. She taught me that behind every word, there must be kindness. But real love shows itself in an accumulation of small actions, each one not significant in itself, but taken together constituting the best love we will know. My brothers and I all recall the lumberjack breakfastsI think that every morning of my life growing up my mom made a hot cooked breakfast. We all recall her getting up at 5 a.m. if we had a job to go to or were going skiing, to make us breakfast and to sit with us and chat. I remember that in high school, I always seemed to be running late to get to school, so she would follow me with the breakfast and get me to eat french toast while I curled my hair. Both my brothers were Eagle Scouts and we had a great laugh last week remembering the survival campout they went on with my dad. The idea was that for 72 hours, you would only eat what you could find in the woods. My brother Dan was pretty young, only about 9 years old. All they found to eat was skunk cabbage, a few berries, and salamanders. They threw the reluctant salamanders into boiling water and watched them roll around in the pot butIm sure this will surprise youonly a few scouts would eat any. Later that night Dan found some crackers and cheese in his backpack that my mom had hidden for him. My brother Davescouts honorstill wouldnt eat any. It was pouring down rain as well. Finally on Sunday, at the end of the campout when they got back to the car, they opened the trunk and realized that my mom had packed a cooler full of hot dogs and buns for them to grill right away. They didnt last long. Mom knew how to take care of boys.

My brothers each independently recalled when they broke up with their first girlfriends, she made the time to sit and talk with them at length about what was on their hearts. She could be very tender. During my senior year of high school when it was clear I would be going to college out of state, many of my best long time friends dropped me. That year and that summer my mom became my best friend, and she stayed that way for the rest of her life. I will miss you, Mom, but I know that you were tired, and wanted to go home and see Dad. I will think of you every day and I will never forget what you taught me. I see you still in my brothers and my sister and now in my own children. You will always be dear to us and we will always love you.

Eulogy from David:

Psalm 100 was one of my mothers favorite psalms, probably because it was short and sweet and very cheerful. I remember when I was in 3rd grade Sunday school at Ebert Memorial Methodist church in Springfield, Oregon. Our assignment was to memorize this Psalm. My mother patiently worked with me until I learned it. I think that was where she developed her love for it too.

Read Psalm 100.

Truly she has been able to enter into His gates today.

I have struggled a lot with what thoughts to share today. There have been so many thoughts swimming around in my head over the last week and a half. It was a little different when my Dad died last year because everything was so compressed together. This time I have had much more time to think about it. Almost everything I thought of saying seemed trite and inadequate to express how deeply I loved my mother. Also I wanted to give those of you who didnt know my mom a glimpse at how great a woman she was. I suppose most everyone loves their mother. What mature, reasonable, responsible, sensitive adult child doesnt? Their mother was the first person to love them. Their mother was the one who gave them birth and cared for them while they were sick. Their mother was the one who helped them learn to walk and talk and read. And if they were blessed with a close relationship later in life, their mother was their counselor, friend and support. I, like many other adult children, have been blessed with this experience.

But today I want to focus on one unique quality of my mother that so deeply touched my life that Ill never forget it. It is joy in sacrifice.

To understand the sacrifices my mother, Sang Won Liu, made, you have to understand her upbringing. My mother grew up in a fairly wealthy family. Her father was a government official. She had a servant carry her books to school for her. She was one of the few women who were able to go to college in Korea in the 1940s. The college was Ewha, which is like the Harvard of Korea. As a student she studied hard. She graduated near the top of her class in high school and college. She got a full scholarship to come to the US to attend graduate school. She planned to go back to Seoul and be a college professor. But when the Korean war broke out, she decided to give all that up to love a man and raise a family. She made that choice for love.

The life she chose wasnt easy. She had to re-neg on her commitment to her college sponsors in Korea who had sent her here to be trained (she later repaid them). Later after her first child was born, Gloria, my Dad spent 13 months in the hospital with tuberculosis. She had to learn to drive a car in one day, in order to go see her husband in the hospital. Many years later when she had just finished raising her kids and our Dad was asked to take early retirement from Weyerhaeuser, where he had worked for 30 years, at only 57, she was shocked. It was not the way she had planned it. But she took it in stride and accepted it and saw the good in it. She made lemons from lemonade.

She sacrificed joyfully for our family and for me personally. I remember the adventures I got to have when I was growing up. I got to spend 2 weeks on the East coast when I was 17 years old. A week in Washington DC and a week in NYC. My mom helped me dream of this trip and make it a reality. When I was in college I got to go to summer camps each summer, even though I was supposed to earn money for college. My mom would help line up a job for me during the remaining weeks of the summer in order to make enough to pay for school the next year. Even though we did not have a lot of money, my mom never let that stand in the way of creating opportunities for me to learn and grow. Even if it meant that the family budget might be tight. She created opportunities for me to grow.

My moms cheerful devotion touched me deeply. I guess anyone who was the beneficiary of the sacrifice and saw it up close couldnt help but be affected by it.

I guess I learned about Christ likeness from her love.

Eulogy from Daniel:

John 14:1-4:
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Fathers house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.

It is my honor to welcome you to this celebration of the life of Sang Won Liu, my Mother. Im Dan Liu and I am her number 2 son. Our family is proud of this woman with whom we were able to share our lives and our dreams during her 76 years here on earth. My father and she would have been married 50 years last December.

Ours was a matriarchal family. Mom was a brilliant woman and yet allowed Dad to think he was running the show. Mom was cheerful and optimistic, yet a realist. She always openly showed her love and acceptance to everyone she met. Throughout her life, Mom reached out to the other Korean women who were so far from home, who felt all alone, who needed a Big Sister, and she helped them to feel welcome in this new country.

Youll see in the picture on the cover of the program, a woman full of spirit. This is one of our favorite pictures, capturing mom s pioneer spirit, exuding confidence, setting off on a journey to a new land, to capture the best education the world has to offer and to share it with her people.

She passed on virtues and values that I can see in my children, ability to plan ahead, to prioritize, to seek excellence in everything that they do. That immigrant factor taught us to seek the best education, play by the rules with the confidence that success will follow. Of course this is another measure of our mom, how well all of us children have fared in life, with the tools and temperament she passed on to us. The friendships she cultivated that lasted a lifetime are another testament to her loyalty and devotion.

We have been deeply touched by the care and concern that has been shown us the past few weeks. Although most of you did not know our mother too well, we appreciate you sharing our loss and helping to celebrate her life with us.

My Mom was wise and perceptive, sapient in all her personal and business dealings. She was Dads walking encyclopedia and helped plan and execute his big ideas. She was the organizing and guiding force behind my fathers impact on the community, like starting the soup kitchen, job center, community caregiving network and habitat for humanity. Another indicator of her focus and tenacity was keeping up with all the photos that my father took each week. He was the church photographer and family photo buff, and my mom religiously took each of the good pictures and created over 30 boxes of photo albums chronicalling our entire family life history.

I hope that you will be able to share some of your rememberances of her during the Open Mic time in our program. We are excited that our family is all together and we can hear firsthand some of the memories of this remarkable woman. The memories are priceless and we thank you for sharing this special time with us. I know this will take a big measure of courage to grab the mic and say a few words; some have said that the only thing they fear more than public speaking is death, so to speak at a funeral will really require some divine courage..

When I was 12 my mother told me that I would be the one who would take care of her and comfort her in her old age. Somehow a mother knows.I spent 10 days with her in February packing up her 50 years of marriage, then moved her down to live with me for her last two weeks. I held her as she took her last conscious breaths, cradling her in my arms, just as she did when I was little and needed comfort.

We know believers by the fruit that their lives have borne. Im sure you will agree that Won has done well to lay up treasures in heaven, by ministering to the hungry, the homeless, the down-and-out. To as much as you do it to the least of these, you do it unto me, said Jesus. I pray that my children and nieces and nephews will get the opportunity to emulate my mother.

So as my mother and father look down upon us from heaven, I cant help but realize that that soul connection was very strong between the two of them. After 50 years of marriage Mom really felt that she was only ½ a person without Dad to read the Daily Devotions with, to have breakfast with, to pray for all the children and grandchildren withshe really wanted to be with him, and after living such a full life with us, we knew we had to let her go on to glory.

After the death of my father, one of my moms favorite condolence cards read this verse:
One or the other must leave,
One or the other must stay.
One or the other must grieve,
That is forever the way.
That is the vow that was sworn,
Faithful 'til death do us part.
Braving what had to be borne,
Hiding the ache in the heart.
One, howsoever adored,
First must be summoned away.
That is the will of the Lord
One or the other must stay.

Well today, we know that they are together again in Heaven and we are deeply thankful for the time they spent investing in our lives and how they modeled grace and love for all whos lives they touched.

Eulogy from Gloria:

I would also like to thank everybody for coming to my mothers memorial service. Id especially like to recognize some out of town guests for coming, Joo Hoon who came from Korea, my mothers nephew, our cousin, Hyun Sook Oh and her family from Everett, George Adams from across the street of my mothers old house in Federal Way Washington. We thank you all for coming.

Id like to especially thank my brother Dan for the love and devotion he has shown my mother especially as she was in failing health, staying in his house, and packing up all her belongings which are now occupying the garage so he had to move his cars out.

Im reading from Proverbs 31, starting at verse 10.

What I have collected for my reminiscences are a bunch of memories which came to me. Theyre a bunch of memories, not real organized; bear with me.

One thing my mother was known for is her hospitality. Going through the photo albums getting the memory boards ready, we saw many, many pictures of our family with other people in our home. She and my Dad entertained quite a bit and extended themselves.

She sacrificed and gave to us. I remember when I was in middle school, I was sick one day and not feeling well. My mother brought me hot soup all the way from home just so I would feel better.

My mother helped my father quite a bit with his projects. When she was helping Dad with the Job Center Auction, she was helping clean up and she fell and broke her back. She didnt complain. She didnt sue. She just moved forward.

When my Dad was New Citizen of the Year, it was a big event. He was recognized by this organization up in Portland. We lived two hours away. I remember riding up in the middle of the week with Fern Mundell, the citizenship teacher and my parents and going to meet the Governor.

Daniel mentioned my mother supported the Korean community. I remember that we knew that when the phone would ring and she said Challisoso and neh, neh, we knew it was going to be a long conversation and we had better make ourselves scarce.

I remember that we would go to the beach sometimes and my mother would work hard the night before or the morning of, getting all the food ready for us to take to the beach and have a picnic. We couldnt afford to eat out at that time so it was crucial that she make all the food. And we would go there and pick up shells and walk with her and my Dad and then play in the sand.

My mother loved flowers and she passed that love of flowers on to us so I think shes in heaven surrounded by flowers.