Eulogy for Yuk Wing Raymond Chiu

My eulogy of a few short pages cannot do our father and his lifetime justice.  There is so much to Dad as a person: intelligent, witty, honest to a fault, loyal to the end, generous beyond belief, fun-loving yet intense, always life of the party and yet would often bemoan having to attend one, numerically precise but often late for appointments.  So many vivid and assorted memories of Dad come rushing to mind. 

Many of Dad’s personal details are already included in his on-line memorial page.  As I reminisced about Dad one night this week, it occurred to me that I could use the initial of the first names of his children – Pauline, Peggy, Priscilla, Nelson, Phoebe: P, P, P, N and P – to share with everyone some of Dad’s most intrinsic qualities as our father.  I think Dad himself would appreciate this acronymic structure for this brief tribute.

Pauline: P is for “Poet-Patriot”

When Dad downsized from our family home of nearly 40 years to a seniors’ condo, out of the multitude of options available, the only activity he joined was Chinese poetry class.  Chinese poetry is an interest that of all his children only Pauline shared deeply with Dad and also our Mom.  However, that is not to say that the rest of us did not have to memorize them.  Reciting and talking about Chinese poetry after dinner would be lengthy, inevitably digressing to the cruelty and brutality of various dynastic rulers in Chinese history whose self-serving short-sightedness ultimately brought about China’s decline and defeat by foreign powers.  Not exactly light after-dinner conversation!  Our father would talk about these dark periods in Chinese history with a lump in his throat and a tear in his eye.  Both he and our mom lived through World War II, with Dad in particular having lived in Hong Kong as a young child during the Japanese occupation.  This experience had a profound impact on him for the rest of his life.

Even while Dad was in the hospital in the weeks before he passed, he was still contemplating and lamenting that the kings throughout Chinese history cared less for the welfare of their common subjects.  We knew he was proud to be Canadian, but clearly his Chinese roots ran deep.  Stuck on his hospital bed, he would recite Chinese poetry, verse and proverbs with us, one of which we siblings can still recite from memory.  Essentially, it is a poem about how fleeting time is, and that is exactly how Dad felt as his health started its downturn last year after his heart attack.  Right up to the end Dad could not believe how short life was even after 86 years.  He was simply enjoying it so much, and we are thankful that this is how he felt when he left us.

Peggy: P is for “Prepared Provider”

Dad was the provider for us that he wished he had growing up.  Because his own father passed awy when he was a young child, he came up with his own idea of what a father should be, and that, he decided, is to be a good provider.  He worked hard and persevered until 1992 even though work was often joyless.  He wanted his children well-clothed, well-fed and well-educated.  He was the quintessential immigrant father: labouring to give his children a far brighter future than the one he had.  Not that he didn’t have success in his own career, but he did hope his children would achieve more and have greater security than he had in Hong Kong.  He used to complain to us jokingly that he had too many children.  We later realized what a huge burden Dad had carried as provider for a household of 8.  He did it, and we are thankful that the Lord provided for us richly through our dad, and beyond just material things.  And when it did come to the material, we were priority ahead of himself.  Case in point we will never forget: when we were little Dad and Mom once vacationed in Hawaii and came home with boxes of luscious chocolate-covered macadamia nuts.  Our entire family, as it happened, LOVED macadamia nuts, and chocolate made it even better.  So when Dad opened the boxes, everyone dug in, and very soon only 1 piece was left.  I was trying to be a good little daughter, so as much as I wanted that last piece, I took it in my little hands and gave it to Dad.  Maybe my hands were a bit dirty as well, but Dad told me, “No, you have it because you enjoy it so much.  You eating it is the same as me eating it.”  This phrase would be repeated many times over throughout our lives, even at decadent meals of lobster and peking duck.  He particularly wanted us to enjoy food, so there was a standing invitation from Dad to go out for a fancy meal any time.  He was seldom happier than we enjoyed meals together, as evidenced by the many family photos taken at restaurants before the advent of social media!

I think Dad was by nature a person who needed to be prepared for the worst, and not just because he had been a Boy Scout.  Having told us umpteen times that the Scout motto is “Be Prepared”, we were literally ready as a family for virtually anything: our family always had a stock pile of food, batteries, radios, flashlights, cash, and back-up supplies in our basement.  Each of our family cars had booster cables, compressors to inflate flat tires, a spade in case we were stuck in the snow, and flashing lights in case we did need to pull over.  We even each carried an extra car key in case we inadvertently left 1 key in the ignition and locked the car door.  This was back in the 70’s before there were prepared emergency kits!  And of course, he got us all CAA memberships.  Dad made sure if there was ever an emergency, we would not be stuck nor without means.  One of the last things Dad bought me was a battery booster for our car last Christmas.  If you have ever visited me and Ken at our home or seen the trunk of our car, you will see that Dad taught this daughter well to be prepared come power outage or car trouble – we are ready!

Priscilla: P is for “Practical Perfectionist”

Dad was a perfectionist, which often made it difficult for us, his kids.  He was literally the parent that would say, “What about the 1%?” when we bring home a 99% test result.  Hard as he was on us, he was equally demanding of himself.  He wanted to be a good and fair father and worked hard at it.  If he was wrong, he was never too proud to admit it and to apologize to us when needed. 

To be accurate, Dad wasn’t always seeking perfection in an ideal sense.  More often it was based on his sense of good and good quality, and he was very critical almost all of the time.  For example, before any of us bought a piece of clothing, it would have to pass his inspection for the fabric quality and sewing workmanship.  He would research to the nth degree exactly the right microscope or telescope for his hobby studies, and would take us through the different product brochures to show each model’s pros and cons.  From him, we learned about the “nice things”: the clarity of a Carl Zeiss lens, the beauty of Bohemian crystal, the smoothness of a fine Parker ballpoint pen, the uniqueness of semi-precious stones, the precision of Swiss watches, all of which he collected.  On the quirkier side, he used to insist that we his daughters do not pierce our ears.  Why put a hole in your perfectly good ear lobes, he used to say!  Too bad for Dad: all of us daughters would eventually have our ears pierced.  Just our ears, Dad!

When Dad passed, one of the first things we did was to look through his trove of family information and records to recall the history of our family and his life.  Dad was methodical, thorough and systematic, and Priscilla is very much like that.  There was a logic and order to his work, play and interests, from his library to his collectibles to his record keeping.  He kept his complete volume of Time-Life Library in plastic bags – the same ones used for packaging pyjamas made by his garment factory.  Over the years he filed, labelled and organized the whole family of 10 including our family tree book, report cards since grade school, family photos and home movies, university degrees and citizenship documents, and details as pedestrian as his Pac Man scores and car gas mileage.  He was our family record keeper who meticulously stored our precious memories and mementos.  We are truly thankful to inherit these now from our dad for posterity.

Nelson: N is for “Need for (K)nowledge”

As I mentioned before, Dad accumulated a lot of books in his library, but his need for knowledge did not end there.  Aside from volumes of scientific and encyclopedic books, he also had a large collection of maps, how-to manuals, dictionaries and magazines including National Geographic, Popular Science and Angler and Hunter.  In his study he would set up a makeshift classroom to teach us about the globe and Mercator map projection, the Earth’s tilt and magnetic poles, planetary motion in our solar system, basic astrophysics, electric current and electromagnetism, different watch mechanisms and the 4-stroke combustion engine, to name just a few.  Dad also undertook a correspondence course in electronics, building his own large screen CRT television that we kids enjoyed watching in the Basement while the adults in the family watched their own television shows upstairs.  During his retirement years he delved into learning the computer, so having a son in the computer business came in real handy for Dad to get caught up with the digital internet age.  He was hooked, and it was not long before he wanted the latest cell phone, digital camera, iPad, laptop, flatscreen TV and gadget.

Aside from academic knowledge, our father also expected us to know how to handle ourselves in any given situation, be it proper etiquette or survival skills.  The lesson would usually take place while we were doing something as innocuous as going out to dinner, playing a board game or watching television.  For example, in the middle of a harrowing scene, Dad would interrupt and ask us, “What would you do if you were in that situation to save yourself?”  If we were playing a board game, he would want it to be an educational or mental strategy lesson, so he used to insist that we play chess.  As the ultimate “no-luck-and-all-skill” game, he would coax us to play against his chess computer daily through our summer breaks.  He taught us how to swim, skate, ride a bike, use a firearm, change a tire, fix our car when it wouldn’t start, use the right tools to fix things around the house from dripping faucets to soldering wires back in place.  For Dad it didn’t matter if we were his daughters or his son – he gave us the same access to information, knowledge and education so that we would be learned, capable and resourceful.  It’s our dad’s legacy that we his kids have the same curiosity and thirst for knowledge, to want to continually hone our skills and to never stop learning.

Phoebe: P is for “Protective Parent”

Dad’s English name “Raymond” is derived from the Germanic name “Raginmund”, meaning counsellor and wise or mighty protector.  As a parent, our dad went to great lengths to protect us from all sorts of danger, real or imagined, from the day we joined the family until the day he passed.

Dad was an auxiliary police officer in Hong Kong on active duty during the Communist riots in the mid-1960’s.  It was our parents’ fear that Hong Kong would destabilize politically after the Vietnam war.  To secure a safer future for us, our father gave up his lucrative textile business and uprooted himself and his family to a new country and a new culture.  In 1974, our family moved to Toronto, Canada. 

Growing up, Dad wanted everything to be as good for us as he knew how.  This included: not allowing us to watch colour television in our early childhood; limiting us to 1 hour of TV a day; sitting as far away from the TV as possible while viewing; not drinking any pop – only water, juice and milk; taking multivitamins and cod liver oil; getting enough fresh air and exercise; not having a microwave oven for fear of exposure.  He was at times overly protective.  For example, he did not want us to go to the library by ourselves so he bought us 2 sets of encyclopedia and lots of reference books to form our own children’s library.  Once we outgrew our kiddie bike, he refused to buy us a new bike for fear we could be hurt riding on major roads.  He was very selective whose friends’ homes we could visit, and which of our friends could come over.  As he would later tell us, we were sheltered in the comfortable home that he and our mom provided us here in Canada because he did not have the same safety and security growing up amidst the tumult of war in Hong Kong and then his family’s poverty afterward.  Democracy, he would say, is not perfect, but freedom is essential, and this he made certain for us including his second wife Yan, and Phoebe his “newest” daughter.  Most of all, knowing that his time was short, he prayed for all of us in his family, lifting us up to the Lord in faith and committing us to His care. 

Dad, we miss you deeply.  We know you loved us, and you knew how much we loved you.  Most importantly, we are thankful you received the Lord’s gracious gift of eternal life because you realized the Lord loved you and has blessed you and your family over the years.  We thank you for all of your sacrifices and willingness to put us first in your life, equipping us to be able and prepared to not only survive but to thrive.  As we have before and now again, we entrust you to our Lord’s care.  Until we meet again in the heavenly kingdom for all eternity – see you then!

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

My father on earth is now with my Father in Heaven. I am very thankful to God that Dad is no longer experiencing his daily challenges with his breathing, eating, talking and weak health. My Dad suffered a lot physically in the last year of his life but he did not complain. His thin, wasted body of his last days was a far cry from the ageless, robust, larger-than-life Dad that I remember from my very beginning.

Make no mistake- my father was a very complex man. He lived through 85 or 86 (depending on what you know about his birth records) very interesting and sometimes challenging years. His persona was one of verve and vitality. He embraced life fully. This is a glimpse into that life.

Of course, the part of Dad’s life I will never know was his life before us- his childhood, youth and early working life in Hong Kong. What I do know came directly out of his own account and perhaps he was telling us tall tales because he did enjoy some embellishment here and there. Growing up during the Japanese occupation made him hate the Japanese. He told us about how he and his “sai dong” school buddies would be up to mischief or great adventures. He was a sportsman-going out swimming on his own or playing team sports including one accident during a soccer game that left a big scar on his right arm. He was in the boy scouts and trooped all over Hong Kong. He grew up poor, he hated being poor and swore never to be poor again. He told of how he was afraid to tell Grandma after he was fired from his job so he pretended to go to work every day as he would have until he finally found a new job. Dad worked very hard and people were kind to him. When he met my mother, I’m sure my grandfather just shuddered- Dad was a suave, slick young man who rode a motorcycle, drank too much for grandpa's liking and far too worldly! Well, my grandfather definitely made it hard for my parents to get married but Dad was one determined guy- he got his girl! 

One of the first things I learned about my Dad as a young child was that HE WAS THE ONE “IN CHARGE”!! You can tell from the family pictures that he towered over everyone in the family even though Dad was only 5’7”. Because Dad was so accomplished, he became the authority in his family and among his peers. Many of his cousins and even the older generation consulted him for big decisions before consulting their own parents or family. Dad was a well-read, intelligent and articulate man, one of few in his family to be fluent in English and he even spoke some German. He owned a very successful garment manufacturing business and the Chiu family never had to buy pajamas again! He was very sociable- wined and dined clients, going to nightclubs with Mom and his couple friends. He traveled the world, flying to and visiting Europe, North America and even Japan! He learned so much about cultures other than his own. He and Mom would be gone for weeks or months at a time when they traveled and we were under the care of an extensive network of grandparents, aunts, cousins and hired help. When Dad came back from these trips, he would bring us souvenirs that delighted us, like our Mickey and Minnie Mouse pins. He realized we loved the Disney stuff so much that he took us all to visit Disneyland on our way to Canada.

When our family moved to Canada, I did not appreciate at the time how much Dad sacrificed for us to start over again in a new country. I was only 7 years old so I knew nothing of the challenges a 40 something year-old man would face trying to raise a family of 4 kids without the family support network that we had in Hong Kong. He hated the cold climes of Canada and missed the sub-tropical Hong Kong he knew. However, our life in Thornhill also afforded us direct face time with Dad so that we grew closer to Dad. Even though his pride was deeply hurt by going from being the owner of a thriving business to a low-ranking employee, we enjoyed our family time together playing board games, watching epic old Hollywood movies and talking about everything. He would surprise us one weekend by setting up the solar system in his study and teaching us about planetary motion, the earth’s tilt and how it gave us the four seasons and what orbiting means for the solar system. He would happily yank out his colossal Reader’s Digest atlas, one of his many issues of National Geographic or, better yet, his copy of “Anglers and Hunters” to show us the countries of the world, pictures of King Tut or the latest RV or boat for the next fishing trip. He had his set of Encyclopedia Britannica but decided that we should have our own set and created a mini-library for us. He bought us books so that we can learn typing, short-hand and how to draw. He gave us a love of geography- he would quiz us on the names of continents, oceans and countries and even made us memorize their flags. The maps of the world, Canada and United States would be taped on the walls of our basement just in case you really can learn by osmosis! He took us to places where we could see and learn- the Science Centre, African Lion Safari, fishing in Port Severn, our station wagon road trips to Montreal’s Olympic Park just to name a few. Any field trip with Dad was a joyful experience. He taught us to skate in the darkness of a wintry night and gave us riddles to solve like it was homework. Life with Dad was never boring.

Growing up in Dad’s house at 4 German Mills Road had its ups and downs. He insisted on the plastic sheeting to protect the foyer broadloom. His basement study was his sanctuary and you had to knock before going in. Because he was continually frustrated by us borrowing his stapler, his hole puncher, his globe, he ended up buying each of us our own stapler, hole puncher, globe, etc. We had backyard barbecues- Dad insisted on getting the natural gas model of the barbecue grill and not the propane one even if that meant digging up the yard to install the gas line. The house was his to own, ours to clean and his to fix. Dad loved and hated yard work. Mowing the lawn was so painful for Dad that as soon as we were big enough to handle that Lawn Boy gas mower we took it over from him. He planted gardens and trees because he enjoyed it and not necessarily because he knew what he was doing. For example, he bought 50 strawberry plants for our backyard garden not realizing that the runners from each plant would spawn hundreds more strawberry plants. Soon our backyard was over-run with strawberries! He was better with flowers- I got to cut the black tulips, daffodils, irises and peonies he planted and arrange them in vases for all to enjoy.

Due to the fact that my Dad grew up without a father, his did not have much of a “playbook” when it came to his turn at fatherhood. Dad was both the good cop and bad cop of the parenting duo. When Grandma used to say to us, “wait ‘til your father gets home”, it could mean that he was going to bring us a new toy or he was going to be the disciplinarian doling out the punishment. Mom was a teacher so she was teacher-like with us. Dad was sensitive and “got it” when it came to thinking like a kid, so that whenever he made a decision, he would explain to us how he understood what we were thinking as children. Sure, he would rage and punish and we would cry but then, his heart would soften and he would come and give us hugs, wipe our tears and tell us not to cry because Daddy loves us. He would always tell us to tell him if we wanted something so that he would always know even if he wouldn’t get it for us. Dad also never believed in getting birthday presents- he said if you really loved someone and wanted to get them something, you don’t need to wait until it’s their birthday!

I will always remember some of the idiosyncracies and habits of Dad’s such as:

His little pocket diary where he wrote reminders and notes, kept extra cash and his favorite toothpick (anyone who is Chinese knows the necessity of a good toothpick), his ID cards and a small pencil. He would never leave the house without it. The importance of the diary was not just to store things that he needed at any given moment, but it also fulfilled his obsessive-compulsive need to be able to document anything at any time. Even when he had his iPhone he would still record in his diary all sorts of quirky detailed notes. His love of recording things meant he had all sorts of family records filed away- the vast troves of family photos, videos, tape recordings, report cards, awards or anything else he deemed “important”. He was probably the first person in Hong Kong to get a Dymo label maker to label everything in his office!

His love of video games, gadgets and technology- the Atari and Nintendo stations were really for him and not for us kids! We enjoyed many hours of competition with Dad on Pac-Man, Space Hawk and Space Armada. It was like he could re-live his childhood again! When he finally retired, one of the first things he did was to buy Nintendo and Wii game stations for his busy post-retirement life! Dad was a man ahead of his time and prescient of how technology could change our lives. He bought just about every tape recorder, camera and video camera on the market. Thankfully he picked VHS over Beta. He bought each of us our own Walkmans when they were still the size of an egg carton. He loved having a big screen at home and he embraced the computer as the portal to a much bigger world long before they were the personal computers we now use. 

His need for precision was part of his OCD. He was very precise and exacting. He had to know things exactly- the exact temperature outside his bedroom window, the exact amount of charge left in a battery, the exact amount of his tax return, the exact mileage of the car after each fill up at the gas station, his exact weight. I could go on and on. Obsessive, compulsive, neurotic.

Dad was the world’s oldest boy scout and happily lived by the mantra “be prepared”. He was always proud of the fact that whenever something was needed, anywhere or any time- he had it, whether it was a replacement battery, a Swiss Army knife, a flashlight or a toothpick! He bought stuff for the family by the crate so we never ran out of anything. Our basement store room was like a convenience store! He also emphasized independence and self-sufficiency. To his daughters he said, “don’t rely on a man- know how to fix a car, do plumbing repairs, make your own living.” To all of his kids, he wanted them to know how to swim, drive a stick shift and be adept at firing a gun. “You never know when you will need these skills to defend yourself or evade an attacker,” he said. For that, I had to remind myself that Dad grew up during the war and was once a cop.

Dad loved eating and had a hyper-acute sense of taste and smell. He loved mangoes, lychees, steamed prawn, king crab and lobster. He loved meat and would go through periods where we’d eat steak or lamb chops every night- so much meat, it turned me into a vegetarian for a while! He loved eating the cookies we baked and even bought cookie bar recipe books for us to encourage us to keep baking treats for him! On the flipside, his uber senses made him repulse at the scent of oil, especially rancid oil. Because he didn’t like smelling or touching grease, he would never touch potato chips when he ate them. He was the only person I knew who would eat his potato chips with chopsticks! 

My parents were very good-looking people- made me wonder where I came from looking at their pictures!! Dad had exquisite taste in clothes and knew good craftsmanship. He was a very stylish man with very refined taste and a classic fashion sense. He admitted that when he was young he modeled himself after the great Gene Kelly- the loafers, the bomber jacket, the Ray-Bans. You can see from the slide show pictures of Dad as a young man in his prime that he was always impeccably dressed and exuded a certain “coolness” that is timeless. His pictures could be shown even now in today’s men’s magazines and they would not be out of place. It was his perception of his own timelessness that kept him youthful and vigorous despite his advanced age. Sadly, this perhaps also made him neglect his own health needs until they were dire. I am grateful he enjoyed many years of good health.

I’ve been told that, of all the kids, I am the most like my Dad in temperament. That is probably not a compliment! However, I gladly acknowledge that I learned a lot from my father or take after his habits in many ways- an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, a curiosity and love of travel, the penchant for precision and exactness, the enjoyment of puzzles, the habit for keeping records and a filing system, insomnia, love of fitness, practice of discipline, logical and rational thinking, a dispassionate and objective assessment of any situation. Of all the kids, I was the only one who got to ride the subway to work with my Dad and later work for him at his Manchu Wok store. I am grateful for those opportunities to work with him shoulder-to-shoulder.

One of the hardest things about losing Dad is that he really was the gateway to our family’s history and our heritage. He was the last one standing of the “adults” who had looked after us all of our lives. Before he died, he tried to tell my sisters much of what we didn’t already know about our family but in going through his study following his death, we found the troves of family pictures and records that he had kept, files he carefully packed up from Hong Kong when our family moved here 44 years ago so that he could make sure that we did not lose that connection to our Chinese family heritage. Sadly, going through the many pictures now I see so many faces I do not recognize and there is no way now to ask Dad who these people were and what they meant to him or to us. My connection to those people are gone.

In closing, life is now lived on a different plane. I do not know a world without my father because he was always there. For as long as I can remember, when I don’t know what to do or what to say, I find myself uttering “dad” as if to call upon a ubiquitous problem-solving genie. Now that he’s gone, there’s no longer any sense of seeking his approval and I only look to our God in heaven. Now that he’s gone, I will never fully know what Dad had to overcome in his life to become the person I knew. I cannot imagine the burden he carried all those years, singlehandedly supporting a large extended family with so many demands and needs. I was never able to fully thank him for ALL of the sacrifices he made for me, for his whole family. I wish I could thank him for bringing us to church and to a saving faith even when he wrestled with his own. I don’t know if he fully appreciated what his hard work and sacrifice had wrought for us. I only know that, in his last days, he told me how much he loved me, he thanked me for all the time I spent looking after him and that he wanted me to pray with him for God’s forgiveness of his sins. I will miss my father with a heartache that I would not wish on my worst enemy but I have great joy in knowing that in God’s Kingdom, my father now rests from his struggles with his health, his mind is now at ease and his heart no longer bears the burdens of his 85+ years of life on earth. I shed tears of pain and joy for him, my Dad. God has taken him home for an eternity of His loving presence, and I can’t wait until I join him there one day.

我們親愛的丈夫，父親和祖父—趙煜榮先生，於2018年4月15日安息主懷，享年85歲。雖然他的護照和駕駛執照上列明了他出生日期，但由於爹哋出生時正是香港動蕩的時期，他沒有出世紙，加上我們的祖母用農曆記錄家事，所以他並不確定自己真實的出生日期。隨著二戰期間日本人對英國殖民地的佔領，爹地入學的時期較晚，所以他也“ 稍微 ” 低報了自己的年齡。因此，我們估計爹哋去世時的實際年齡應該是86歲。

無論如何，爹哋從一個低微的童年起步，白手興家，享受了非常豐滿的一生。作為家裏最年幼的孩子和唯一的男丁，趙家的希望全部落在爹哋身上。少時的他喜歡冒險，充滿好奇心，為人忠誠可靠： 他參加童軍，喜歡科學實驗，他是個在班級裏名列前茅卻頗頑皮的學生，與他的 “死黨” 們挑戰老師，校規，他們結伴探險，搞惡作劇，無所不談，他們也成為爹哋一生的生死之交。

由於家庭經濟壓力，爹哋開始着急賺家用，成績有所下降，後來他決定輟學全職工作，未有完成高中 — 這是他畢生的一個遺憾。儘管學歷未如理想，他在多家外資進口公司工作多年後，與三位合夥人共同創辦了自己的製衣廠和公司。

當時還在出入口公司工作時，爹哋認識了在同一棟大樓但不同公司工作的慧慈，後來與她結婚並組織家庭。隨後，寳貽，珮琪（大寳），珮琳（細寳）和萬衆期待的男丁，力行（一一），在1964到1969年間出生。憂慮到越南的政治形勢可能威脅到香港長遠的穩定，並且由於慧慈一家在共產黨的統治下已經飽受過苦難，也為了給子女更好的將來，在香港人未曾流行移民之前，早在1974年他們就決定舉家移民到加拿大 多倫多定居。隨後，他一直供養的母親和大姊也都移民遷加.

儘管爹哋再沒有受正規的學校教育，並且要常常為工作和家庭忙碌，但他非常熱愛學習，收集的書籍包括多套百科全書，字典，各種手冊，地圖和大量的國家地理雜誌。凴著他敏銳的頭腦和過目不忘的記憶力，他無窮的好奇心及廣汎的愛好促使他自修多方面的知識：他創立了自己的生意，自己組裝電視機，鑽研中國詩詞，辯論政治，嘗試園藝。

音樂方面，爹哋喜歡軍事進行曲，蘇格蘭風笛，華爾茲舞曲，60年代的流行曲和ABBA！他最喜愛的曲目之一是來自電影Dr. Zhivago的 Lara‘s Theme。他的娛樂活動中，體育，電視，電影的排名很高，但給他最大的樂趣的是與家人和朋友聊天，爹哋健談，有滔滔不絕的話題和故事跟大家分享。他雖不喜歡下厨之餘，卻熱愛美食，他是家裡最挑嘴的食客，嗅覺和味蕾都非常敏銳。

爹哋擁有獨到的審美眼光和强烈的道德標準。他在意及欣賞一切的真，善，美。他很理智，喜歡思考，也是個極度完美主義者，大家都知道他做任何事情都需要花上很長的時間，因爲恐怕會耽誤大家，所以他長期處於一個焦急的狀態。

作為父親，他試圖激發我們對學習的興趣，親自教授我們天文地理，中國歷史，詩詞，甚至是電流，四衝程發動機的原理。他盼望與兒女分享他所認識的一切一切。他善於自我表達，非常喜歡跟兒女們聊天。

2000年後，爹哋再次往世界各地旅游。儘管他當時已是高齡，他心境一點也不老，他攀爬了加西的哥倫比亞冰川和中國的萬里長城。他是一名科技迷，他在退休後學會了使用電腦。他熱衷新科技，昂貴的新玩意都恨不得買下來。即使在他住院期間，他的iPhone，iPad和耳機都不離身。

繼慧慈於2000去世後，爹哋在廣州結識了國妍並在2006年跟她結婚。隨後，國妍和她的女兒家穎移民加拿大，加入趙家的大家庭裏。 

兒女們都長大了，並且各自有自己的事業，配偶和家庭，爹哋說：看到五個兒女整整齊齊，他感到很安慰。

可惜爹哋在2017年初患上心臟病之後，健康逐步惡化，身體日催虛弱，並且一再出入醫院。他總是非常渴望和高興見到他的家人，包括他的小孫女慧中。在他最後的日子裏，他對凡事還是那麽感興趣，説話還是那麽風趣，頭腦還是那麽精靈。改變了的是他意會到人生最終，最重要的是什麽。他恢復了對耶穌基督的信仰，並自發地為他所有家人禱告。即使到最後他說話吃力，他的手勢也傳達著盼望和愛。

爹哋善待他人，極其為別人著想，也受到他人的愛戴。我們非常懷念他，但我們現在只是與他暫別：我們期待有一天在我們的主耶穌基督裏與爹哋永遠相聚。在那裏我們會重見已離世的家人，在新天新地裏每個人都充滿健康活力，歡樂地大團圓。

Beloved husband, father and grandfather, Yuk Wing Raymond Chiu went to be with the Lord on April 15th, 2018, at 85 years of age. Despite the official birthdate on his passport and driver’s license, Dad was not sure of his exact biological age as he had grown up during a tumultuous time in Hong Kong, his birthplace. Dad did not have a birth certificate and our grandmother used the Chinese lunar calendar for family records. With the Japanese occupation of the British colony during World War II, Dad was late entering school, so he “fibbed” about his age.  As such, our best guess is that Dad was actually 86 years old when he passed away.

Regardless of exact age, Dad rose from a humble childhood to become a self-made man, and enjoyed a very full life. As the youngest child and only son, the family’s hopes were all upon him, as well as his family’s modest means. Growing up, he was adventurous, curious and loyal: he joined the boy scouts, enjoyed science experiments as much as playing after school, and engineered great mischief at school with his “gang” of friends, who would become his life-long inner circle. He was a loyal friend and had no shortage of stories to share with them.

Succumbing to family financial pressures, Dad did not finish high school and started full-time work.  Not having completed high school was one of his life-long regrets. After many successful years in various import firms, Dad struck out with 3 partners to establish his own garment manufacturing business.  It was working at ne of these import/export companies, that Dad met Sally who was working in the same building but different firm, and later married her and started a family.  And so Pauline, Peggy, Priscilla, and the much-awaited boy, Nelson, were born over the years 1964-1969.  When the geopolitical situation in Vietnam seemingly threatened Hong Kong’s colonial stability in the early 70’s, and because Sally's family had suffered through the turmoils of the cultural revolution, to make a better future for their children, they decided to emigrate and move the family to Toronto, Canada in 1974.

Despite his lack of formal schooling and being kept busy by work and family demands, his sharp mind, insatiable curiosity and snapshot memory propelled him to further study a variety of topics that piqued his interest: he built his own businesses and his own television; he recited pages of Chinese poetry; he debated politics; he dabbled in horticulture.  He was a voracious learner of everything, so he amassed a vast library comprised of multiple encyclopedic, dictionary and Time-Life volumes, various how-to manuals, maps and a substantial National Geographic magazine collection.

His musical taste was narrower but still varied: military marching music, bagpipes, waltzes, 60’s greatest hits, and ABBA!  One of his all-time favourite tunes was Lara's Theme, from the movie, Dr. Zhivago.  Sports, television, and movies also ranked highly in his entertainment, but what he enjoyed most was simply talking with family and friends.  The only thing he didn’t want to do was to cook.  However, he loved to eat and had a sense of smell and taste that was so acute, he was also by far the pickiest eater in the family.  Even so, he was adventurous enough to try different types of cuisine in pursuit of that great meal.

Dad was a provider—he considered it his prime mission in life to provide for his family.  The thing he first swore he would never do—cooking or working in the kitchen because the smells invaded his senses—he did and bought into the restaurant business because it was a means to provide for his family.  

As a father, he tried to instill his penchant for learning into his children by personally teaching them astrophysics and planetary motion, geography, Chinese history, electrical current, even the 4-stroke combustion engine.  He was expressive and enjoyed nothing more than to talk with his children.  He enthusiastically passed on to them virtually everything he knew.  He was rational, scrupulous, and a perfectionist to the T—which was why it took him so long to do anything—it had to be “just so“. 

Early in his marriage he travelled, and then after his first wife passed away in 2000, he picked it up again.  Despite his age, he climbed Columbia Ice Field and the Great Wall of China.  Always young at heart, he was a “techie” who learned to use the computer on his own during his retirement, fully and completely embracing the latest gadget no matter the cost.  Even while he was in the hospital, his iPhone, iPad, and earbuds were always by his bedside.

Following Sally’s death in 2000, Raymond married Guo Yan in 2006. Yan and her daughter Phoebe emigrated to Canada to join him and the rest of his family.

Dad’s health began to deteriorate after suffering a heart attack early in 2017. While his body gradually failed and he was repeatedly hospitalized, he was always eager and happy to see his family that later included his first granddaughter, Emma, whether in person or via Facetime.  In his last days, his sense of humour did not diminish, and his appreciation for what was truly important, as well as the real purpose in his life, crystallized. Even when he became unable to speak easily, his animated gestures were his tacit expressions of hope and love. He renewed his faith in Jesus Christ and made sure he prayed with and for all of us – his family.

Our father was pre-deceased by his mother, his two elder sisters, his first wife, and survived by his second wife, five children and granddaughter.  

Raymond was loving and was well loved. We miss him dearly, but we look forward to an eternity with him in our Lord Jesus Christ, where a great reunion awaits with our other family members--everyone all joyful and full of vitality.