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2017-4
23

At church at the time when the minister invites congregation to greet those round us a lady offered blessings to me then read the Chinese characters on my shirt.  I was taken aback as no idea an elderly Aussie lady could do that.  After church out on the terrace for coffee I followed up and she has a wonderful story. During WWII Chinese sailors at the Brisbane Port could not return and were interned at a place in Bulimba near the river.  They often passed Ingrid’s house and after months set up a laundry business under the house.  At war’s end they engaged Ingrid’s parents to help them register the laundry as a business and so they could stay.  Ingrid and Peter Fong fell in love and they had 4 children. Peter was a steward at the church for decades and passed away 2007. Ingrid showed me his photo in her wallet and certainly a dignified gentleman.  She visited China with him 6 times including his ancestral home which she recalls in English as Ho Chong somewhere not too far outside the main southern city of Canton.  Her kids are apparently consumed in Western ways and not much to tie them back to China.

There is a whole book in there

, stranger than fiction.  A lovely story. Ingrid Fong

: https://www.coulterexergy.com/archives/1702

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