My dearest sister May Kwan was born one winter’s day in 1934, a premature baby who arrived even earlier than the “seven-month” babies people speak of. Given the medical equipment and knowledge of that time, her survival was nothing short of a miracle. When she was born, the medical staff lacked the courage to place her tiny body on a scale, or to move her enough to dress her. Instead they wrapped her in cotton wool pads. Milk was fed drop by drop through a pipette. In the notes my father left behind, he recorded day by day, the exact number of drops she took. It was all love that nurtured her strong will to live and allowed her to survive. 

In early childhood May Kwan attended Sung Lan Primary School in Wan Chai. Her schooldays were interrupted when Hong Kong fell during the Second World War. The relentless sufferings of the three years and eight months Japanese occupation was deeply rooted in her memory and she dared not forget. After the war she enrolled in St Paul’s Co-educational College. Upon matriculation she entered the Faculty of Science at the University of Hong Kong, majoring in Chemistry. After graduation she obtained a Diploma in Education.

There are three sisters in our family, May Kwan being our eldest, twelve years my senior. We share the same Chinese zodiac sign. I remember how, when I was small, she would hold my hand as we explored the Botanical Gardens, steady me as I climbed the stairs, lift me up in the bakery counter to pay the bun, and patiently explain the plots of films I was too young to follow. When her secondary-school and university classmates held gatherings, she always brought my second sister and me along. The Lady Ho Tung Hall in Pokfulam Road was a familiar place we visited most.

After graduation, Principal Dr BM Kotewall called her back to her alma mater to teach Chemistry. She left midway for some time, founded the school Hong Kong College, and later returned to her alma mater as the vice principal. From schooling to work, she spent most of her lifetime there. I was one of her many pupils. Shewas a conscientious teacher who worked with scrupulous care, who took responsibility, who understood and cherished her students. Her teaching objective was to present every topic in the simplest, clearest way possible. In the days of blackboard and chalk, by the end of class she left on the board the key points and a concise summary. We all could memorise and recite effortlessly the periodic table turned into rhythmic sentences. She encouraged her students to do their own best rather than focus on rankings. In the laboratory she guided us patiently through titrations until every drop was measured precisely. She constantly put herself in our place, untangling our academic difficulties and tending to our emotional needs.

May Kwan had deep affection for her alma mater that had reared her and with which she had worked for most of her life. The school motto—Faith, Hope, Love—was engraved into her being. She believed that life is a continual remaking of the self, that maturity is acquired only through experience, and that failure teaches more than success. In her later years her recognition and understanding of “Faith, Hope, Love,” and especially of the verse that follows—“the greatest of these is love”—deepened immensely. Life’s joys and sorrows, gains and losses led her to perceive that love is the one indispensable bond between human beings. The line from the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those whotrespass against us” illuminated her path. To love, to forgive, and to forget became her life philosophy, bringing her serenity and joy.

Even in the final stages when she had swallow difficulties and required special feeding methods, she remained cooperative with unwavering determination,easing the family's worries and live out her life.

It was love that brought her into this world, and it was also love that accompanied her departure and returned to the embrace of our Father in heaven. As stated in Corinthians 13:13 in the New Testament : “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Rest in peace , my dearest sister, my revered teacher, my closest friend. May your torch of kindness burns forever in our hearts.

Tearful Adieu,
Sister May Lun