Gwendolyn Elaine Chin See, born on May 29th, 1943 in Falmouth, Jamaica passed away peacefully on August 9th, 2022 at age 79 after a long battle with cancer. She was daughter to Ida and Percival Chin See of Falmouth, Jamaica W.I. and granddaughter to William Chin See, founder of Chin See Bros., one of the most successful and influential businesses in the town of Falmouth.
She is survived by brother Owen, sister Iris, cousins, nephews, nieces, grand nephews and grand nieces.
Auntie Gwen or “Gwen-Goo” as we would affectionately call her was fun loving and gregarious in nature, borne out by the fact that everyone recognized her unique laughter.
As a young child, she saw how her mother Ida struggled to run the Chin See Bros. business after her father Percy’s early passing. She attended Immaculate Conception High School in Jamaica, a Catholic school run by nuns. These early experiences formed the foundation for self-reliance, respect, responsibility and hard work that would guide her later in life.
While at Immaculate she mastered several difficult piano compositions and earned the admiration of her music teacher. She attended college in New York. There she earned diplomas in Dance Therapy (MS) at Hunter College, NY and Public Administration (MS) at Baruck College, NY.
She was empathic yet was not afraid to challenge herself and go outside her comfort zone. Among her accomplishments in personal development, she ran the NY Marathon, ate fire and walked on burning coal, walked on broken glass, went bungee jumping and mastered public speaking.
My earliest memories of her was that of a sophisticated young aunt from New York that was fun to be with. Our parents were always busy running the business, but “Gwen-Goo” always had time to teach us children, songs from the “The Sound of Music” and “Mary Poppins” or to get thoroughly roasted and sunburned from full day’s outings at Burwood Beach, or from sunbathing on the Chin See Bros. hardware building rooftop.
Auntie Gwen was instrumental in arranging our first Family Thanksgiving Gathering back in 1992. This came about from several back-to-back family events that occurred close together. Due to everyone living so far away, we never got to see each other on a frequent basis. On August 20th, 1991, grandmother Ida (Apo) passed away; our father Albert passed away on February 20th, 1992 and Hurricane Andrew hit Miami on August 24th, 1992. Despite these setbacks, the family gathering went ahead as planned on November 26th, 1992. Gwen was the chief organizer in calling everyone and insisting they come — “William, you must come… you must bring Ah-Ja.” So everyone came, Helen, Joy, Marguerite, George, Iris, Ramsay, Cutie, William and so on, to our hurricane damaged house in Miami, leaking roof and all. We visited the cemetery and laid flowers, remembering loved ones passed. The following year, even more family members came. To this day, though Auntie Gwen was no longer able to come, and our group has grown smaller due to loved ones passing, Thanksgiving for our family has become a day of remembrance. Gwen, in her unique way, was able to ease our grief and bring the family closer together.
More recently, recognizing the importance of preserving her life’s experiences for future generations of Chin See families, she wrote her own memoir, “Remembrance of Things Past” as well as collaborated on several major family journals that can be found on the Chin Family Tree website.
She was instrumental in getting brother Owen’s personal diary translated from chinese to english. Through collaboration with Herbert and Herbert’s friend, Wangen, the diary was translated from chinese to english and can be found on our website. As a result, we have a window to the ordeal brothers Albert, Owen, George,and Ramsay went through in China during the war (WWII), and later, during the Chinese Communist Revolution.
Thanks to Gwen, her father Percy’s grave in Kingston, Jamaica is now fully renovated. Again through collaboration, the damaged roof over the grave has been repaired, and a new plaque has been installed to replace the damaged one. Gwen was just a few months old when her father died.
We were all the more fortunate for having had Auntie Gwen in our lives.
Thank you Gwen-Goo.
Monroe