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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781490755854 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Trafford Publishing |
| Publication date: | 10/16/2015 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 376 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
Read an Excerpt
My Search
By Susaik Chu
Trafford Publishing
Copyright © 2015 Susaik ChuAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4907-5584-7
CHAPTER 1
Moving In
My family and I moved into a brand-new house in Pleasanton, California, in November 1984, after we moved out from King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, in early May 1984. My family was originally from California. My grandfather was an American, adopted by Chinese railroad workers. He worked with his adopted father in the railroad after he grew up. I discovered all the relatives from my grandfather side in California after we moved into this house. Senator George Hearst and Phoebe Apperson Hearst were my great-great-grandparents. William R. Hearst was my great-grandfather. Elaine Cohen was my great-grandmother, and Howard Hughes was my grand-uncle. My parents were Hee Chu and Kitty Chu. My parents went to Burma after they got married and lived in a small town called Mergui, situated in the southern part of Burma. They gave birth to nine children in Mergui. I was the youngest child in the family. My father was a mine owner. My mother was a housewife. My father did very well in his mining business. He brought home many hundred tons of wolfram from his mines each time he came back home. He invested all the money that he got from the mining business into the rubber plantation business. He also owned a pawn shop in Mergui. My father and his friends together started an elementary school in Mergui. They hired the best teachers to provide the best education to all the children. He hired an English teacher who came to our home to teach English to all the children. My father would dress me up like a boy. After I was born, each year, when he bought the materials to make shirts and pants for himself, he bought extra materials to make shirts and pants for me just like him. I did not go to school until I was seven years old. I went to elementary school in Mergui. My parents moved all their children to Rangoon to attend a Catholic school. I grew up in the Catholic school. I graduated from elementary school in St. Emily Convent High School and graduated from middle and high school in St. Philomena Convent High School. I received my bachelor's degree, majoring in chemistry, from Rangoon Arts and Science University in 1970. After I graduated from the university, my mom insisted all of us to apply for immigration visas to go back to America. So we all applied for visa and came back to America in 1971. I lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with my sisters and my brother Edward Chu and his family. After one year, my sister Daisy Khaw and her family bought a house in King of Prussia. We all moved to King of Prussia in 1972.
I was working for J. C. Penney departmental store as an accountant clerk in audit department. Siok was working as a machinist in Philadelphia Gear Corporation after he moved to King of Prussia from California in 1972. I knew Siok since I was in university. We got married in 1973, and we lived in DeKalb Pike apartment. We bought a brand-new two-story house in General Scott Road, King of Prussia, after our first daughter Sirena was born. Sirena was born in Lankernau Hospital, Upper Merion County, Pennsylvania, in 1974. After we moved into our new house in King of Prussia, Siok designed and laid out the yard himself, planting a lot of fl oral trees. We took turns to take care of our daughter Sirena as we both were working. Siok took care of Sirena during the day while I went to work in J. C. Penney. After I came back from work at 5:00 p.m., I babysat Sirena, while Siok went to work until next morning. I miscarried a baby in 1976 after I lifted heavy boxes in the office. I felt very upset on losing my baby, so I quit my job and became a housewife. I took care of my daughter Sirena until my son Shaun was born. He was born in Sacred Heart Hospital, Norristown, Pennsylvania, in 1978. When I was five months' pregnant with Shaun, every day, amazingly, on and off , my room smelled of good perfume. I did not use any perfume at home. I did not know where the perfume smell came from, but it made me feel very comfortable. When I delivered Shaun, I did not feel any pain like I had done when I delivered Sirena. I took care of my two beautiful children, Sirena and Shaun that God gave me until they were quite a bit older. Then I went back to school to study my master's degree, majoring in computer science, in 1981 at Villanova University. I was lucky to have my two lovely children who understood that they had to take care of themselves when I went to school. Sirena took the responsibility of taking care of her brother while I was in school at night. They both watched television until 8:00 p.m. Then Sirena would turn off the light, and they both would sleep in my room. When I came back home from school at 9:00 p.m., both my children would be already asleep. I had to work hard to study. Finally, I received my master's degree diploma from Villanova University in December 1983. After I graduated from Villanova University, Siok and I decided to move our family to California. Siok contacted his longtime friend, Jim, who owned a moving and storage company in Oakland, for a job in his company. When Jim agreed to offer him a job in his company and move us out to California in his truck, we were very excited that we had got the chance to move ourselves to California. I informed all my sisters and brothers about my family moving to California real soon. Then I started to pack all our stuff that we needed to take to California and waited for Jim to call us to confirm the date for moving our household goods to California.
At the time when we decided to move to California, Sirena was in third grade, and Shaun was in kindergarten at Caley Road Elementary School in King of Prussia. Every day, I sent my children to school in the morning, and I picked Shaun in the afternoon. Sirena came home by herself after school. They took violin lessons at school and piano lessons at home with the piano teacher once a week. They practiced their piano and violin lessons at home after school. They both joined the scouts and attended the scout meeting once a week. I packed all our belongings all by myself at home when my children were at school. Siok did not have time to help me to pack because he had to work twelve hours a day, seven days a week. I just kept pulling out all the stuff that we needed to take to California from the cabinet shelves and packed in packing boxes every day. It took three months to get all the things to get ready to move. Finally, Jim called us to confirm the date in April when his truck driver would come and load all our household goods and belongings to move to California. We set a date to move to California in early May 1984. My children were excited that we were ready to move to California. They informed all their teachers and friends about our move to California. Jim's truck driver came in the end of April and loaded all our household goods on the truck and took them to California. We flew to California from Philadelphia in early May 1984. We lived in a Fremont apartment until we bought a house in Pleasanton.
When we moved into this new house in late 1984, Siok carefully designed our yard to plant the bushes and the trees to match the structure of our house. Siok planted the slow-growing trees and bushes such as cherry trees, tropical trees, Japanese maples, cypress trees, evergreen trees, carnations, camellias, azaleas, lily, iris, and other green bushes. They all were very healthy, beautiful flowering plants. After six months, Mr. Ackerman and his family moved into the house on the right side of our house. He planted three white birch trees in his left-side yard close to our garage. When he met Siok after he planted the white birch trees, he told Siok that the birch trees were medicinal trees and that Native American people used the birch leaves as tea and medicines. After Siok heard this news, he believed Mr. Ackerman and brought home two small paper birch trees and planted in our backyard. They were fast-growing trees and very messy. Years went by and our paper birch trees grew very big. I also saw a lot of birch trees were planted in our community. All these trees were getting so big, just like our paper birch trees. Siok would take care of the outside lawn and yard. After he was done working in the lawn, he would complain his face and body were itching. Sometimes, lots of rashes formed on his both hands, sometimes on his whole face and body. When Siok was not at home, my son Shaun took care of the lawn for me. Shaun complained that he got a bad itch and allergy rashes on his face after working in the outside yard. Siok and Shaun kept on complaining about the bad itch and the allergy rashes forming on their faces and bodies after they worked outside in the yard. They both told me that something, about which they did not know, was in the outside air that caused a bad itch and allergy rashes on their faces and bodies. After I heard the complaints from Siok and Shaun, I talked to the people in my neighborhood about the bad itch and allergies. They told me they also got bad itch and allergies on their bodies when they worked outside in their yards, and they also did not know what was in the air that was causing them the bad itch and allergies.
Siok and I bought a moving and storage company in Benicia after we moved out to Pleasanton. After our moving and storage company picked up the businesses from the corporations and was growing, we moved our company to Livermore. I worked with Siok in Best-way International Moving and Storage Company in Livermore. We met a lot of good people in Tri Valley. In particular, I was very lucky to meet my godmother Ada Lundgren and elderly Catherine Nugent in Pleasanton. My godmother Ada was a navy captain's wife. Catherine was an elderly who was a retired school teacher from Amador High School. They had both lived in Pleasanton almost all their lives. I got to know elderly Catherine in Pleasanton Women Club when my godmother Ada took me to join the club. I met her in Ada's house several times when they both were working on a project for their Baptist Church. I got to know her so well, and I liked her a lot. I would talk to her on the phone almost every week. Catherine was different from Ada; she had a lot of knowledge in different fields. She would listen to me patiently whenever I called her and talked to her. She would always guide me to do what was best for me. She would explain to me a lot of things that I did not know; she would advise me on solving the problems that I faced. She was the person that I could rely on very much.
My godmother Ada was a very energetic and outgoing lady. She joined all kind of churches and went out to meet and made friends with a lot of people. She always liked to take me to visit her aunt Bertha in Pleasanton Convalescent Home. When we visited her aunt, she would always go to the nearby garden to pick flowers from the fl oral tree without asking for permission from the owner. Then she would take the flowers inside the convalescent home to give her aunt and other elderlies. The way she did that really scared me. I told her she should not do this. She laughed and said there was nothing to be afraid of. She said that she had been living in Pleasanton so long that almost all people from her church and her neighbors knew her quite well and was very friendly with her and that no one complained and said anything to her. I remember that I carried my two cockatiel birds, Sunny and Shadow, while visiting Aunt Bertha to show her. Shadow flew away in front of the convalescent home when I took Sunny and Shadow out from my car. Ada and I looked for Shadow in front of the convalescent home and nearby areas and could not find him, but we heard his weeping voice on the tree in front of the convalescent home. So I just took Sunny inside the convalescent home to show Aunt Bertha. Aunt Bertha loved Sunny so much. She played with Sunny after I put the bird on her arm. Ada went over to the nurses of the convalescent home to let them know we had lost a cockatiel bird in front of the convalescent home. She gave them her telephone number and requested them to call her if they saw the cockatiel bird in the outside yard of the convalescent home or anywhere nearby. The nurses agreed to call her and then we left.
After we came out from the convalescent home, we looked for Shadow again. One of the nurses came out and told us that she had just seen Shadow on the tree branches crying out loudly and then flying away toward the back of the convalescent home. I told Ada that I would bring Shaun to the convalescent home after he came back from school to look for Shadow. She told me she would inform all her neighbors and friends about Shadow being lost and would request them to inform her if they saw Shadow in the surrounding areas. I dropped Ada in her house and went home with Sunny, without Shadow. When Shaun came back from school, I told him that Shadow was lost in the convalescent home when we had been visiting Ada's aunt. He cried bitterly and asked me to take him to the convalescent home to look for Shadow. I took him to the convalescent home. When we reached there, we heard Shadow weeping somewhere near the convalescent home. Shaun kept on calling loudly, "Shadow! Shadow! Shadow!" When Shadow heard Shaun's voice, he cried out loudly, responding to him. We followed the direction of Shadow's weeping voice and walked to the backyard of the convalescent home. But we could not find him. There was a small hill behind the convalescent home. As it was dark, we decided against climbing the hill and returned home. When I took Sirena and Shaun to Ada's house during the weekend, Shaun kept on crying in front of Ada when he saw her and told her that I had lost his cockatiel bird Shadow and that he wanted his Shadow back. When Ada saw him crying, she promised him that she would get another cockatiel bird to replace Shadow. But Shaun told her he did not want any replacement bird and just wanted Shadow back, and he kept on crying. She could not console him and stop his crying. Then she promised that she would fi nd Shadow for him. After we left Ada's house, Ada drove around her neighborhood, looking for Shadow. She kept telling all her friends to call her if they saw the cockatiel bird. I took Shaun to the convalescent home almost every day after he would come back home from school. We kept looking at the places where we heard Shadow's weeping voice. We went to the convalescent home again during the weekend at noon time. We climbed up the small hill behind the convalescent home. Shaun kept on calling, "Shadow! Shadow! Shadow!" When Shadow heard Shaun's voice, he responded back in his weeping voice from a tree on the top of the hill behind the convalescent home. We climbed up all the way to the top of the hill, following the direction of Shadow's weeping voice. Shadow's weeping voice was getting closer and closer when we were on top of the hill. Then when we stopped under a big tree, Shadow's weeping voice got louder and louder. From Shadow's voice, we knew that he was somewhere very close-by. Shaun kept calling him, and we kept looking around the surroundings. Suddenly, Shadow jumped down from the tree and landed on Shaun's shoulder. When Shaun turned around and saw Shadow on his shoulder, he was so happy. He gripped Shadow in his hands and kissed Shadow. Then we went down the hill behind the convalescent home and went home. Shaun was very grateful and happy to get Shadow back from the wild environment near the place where we had lost him. After we were home, he settled Shadow with Sunny in the cage. Then he called Ada to inform her he had got Shadow back. Ada was very happy to hear that. She told Shaun and me that she had been driving around in her neighborhood almost every day looking for Shadow. She was very grateful and relieved to hear we got Shadow back from the wild environment. She told all her friends that we had got Shadow back from the wild. She had so many friends to keep her busy in this city and nearby cities. She did not have much time to listen to my problems and my complaints, but she loved me and my family dearly and supported me whatever I did. Whenever I needed her help, she was always there for me. After my car accident, she took me to the farm when Sirena was busy and could not take me to the farm. Catherine and Ada both were very conservative, sincere, and kind persons. I have so many things to talk about both of them. I did not have anything to complain about them. I loved both of them so much. They were my family members in Pleasanton.
I stopped commuting to Livermore office and worked at home in early 1993, after an employee Randy J. from our company forced me to issue him a check to pay him. Randy had his own moving and storage company in southern California. I did not understand why Siok hired him and Phil S. to work for our company. I did not know how Siok set up their contracts to deal with the company. I heard from Siok that he had hired Randy J. as salesman and Phil S. as traffic manager to work for our company. After they worked in the office, they took over all the accounts of the company. When Randy came to me and asked me to issue a check for him, I suggested that he should talk to Siok first to get the approval before asking me to cut a check for him. He refused to talk to Siok and kept insisting me to cut the check for him. I told him I would not cut any check without Siok's approval. Then he left. Phil S. also came to me and asked me to issue the checks for him again without the approval from Siok. I was getting upset and frustrated every time they came to me, asking me to issue the checks for them without getting approval from Siok. I felt this was not a good idea to let the employee keep asking me to cut the checks for them without any approval from their boss in the office. Hence, I decided to move back home, and I started working from home. After I moved back home, I worked in my study room. I worked hard to manage the company to let it grow big. We kept the company so busy under our management. The truck drivers brought in a lot of household goods to our Livermore warehouse every day. I asked Siok to bring home all the paperwork from the office when he came home. I designed the computer programming for my company and took care of all the company accounts and payroll.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from My Search by Susaik Chu. Copyright © 2015 Susaik Chu. Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgments, ix,Chapter 1 Moving In, 1,
Chapter 2 Set Deal, 47,
Chapter 3 Confirmation, 94,
Chapter 4 Review Blood Test Results, 225,
Chapter 5 Experiments, 302,
Chapter 6 Environmental Disasters, 332,
Abbreviations, 359,
Index, 361,