Uncle George was born in Falmouth, Jamaica on September 9th, 1932 to Ida and Percy Chinsee. He was the fifth of eight children born to Miss Ida. At the age of 2, Miss Ida brought George, along with his 3 brothers Albert, Owen and Ramsay to China to be brought up and educated there. In those days, it was customary for Chinese families in Jamaica to send their children back to China to be brought up in the proper Chinese way.
There, the 4 brothers were placed in the care of their Uncle Rupert’s first wife, Li Man. The family was supported mainly by remittances sent from Jamaica. The family fell on hard times as a result of the war (WWII) in the 1940s when the Japanese invaded Hong Kong and then during the Chinese cultural revolution in the 1960s. During that time, the remittances did not come regularly and the family suffered great hardship.
As a foreign born (British Overseas) Chinese and from a wealthy family, the brothers suffered discrimination and imprisonment during the cultural revolution in the 1960s.
Fortunately, George and his wife, Annie were spared the bulk of the suffering that his brothers Owen and Ramsay went through during the cultural revolution, as at the behest of his uncle Senator Rupert Chinsee, George and Annie were granted exit from China to return to Jamaica in the mid nineteen sixties, along with their infant daughter, Rosie.
Cousin Joy recollects that George never forgot that Rupert played an important part in getting his family out of China. After Rupert’s passing in 1983, George and Annie would often travel over 2 hours round trip on a Sunday from Savanna la Mar to visit Joy’s mother Helen at her rural home in Martha Brae near Falmouth. Joy also recollects that when cousin Yuk Yu organized a collection for the dedication of a classroom of GUAN LAN No.2 MIDDLE SCHOOL in China to honor grandfather William Chin See. It was she and George who made the donations. This school had been attended by several generations of William Chin See’s family members in China.
My earliest recollections of Uncle George was that of a generous man – he always bought us candy as kids. One memory I have is that as kids we’d love “drive-outs” with him because he drove in stops and starts. Us kids in the back of his car laughing at his erratic driving.
While all his siblings later migrated to the USA and elsewhere, George chose to spend his old age in Jamaica, the country of his birth. Jamaica became George and Annie’s home for the rest of their lives. George and Annie adapted to their new Jamaican culture, as many people before them had done.
In my recent recollection, Uncle George used to come up from Jamaica regularly to buy supplies for he and Annie’s medical practice. He would take Uber to his house, and I would take him to the airport on his return.
Each time he came, he would take Mom, Jeff and I to various buffet style Chinese restaurants he liked, especially to the Shin-Ju Japanese Buffet on Sunset and Galloway. While we would binge on snow crab legs, shrimp, stone crab claws and sushi, he always ate the regular style American Chinese fares – pork lo-mein, BBQ pork ribs, wonton soup etc. He took vicarious delight in seeing us enjoying the various menu items available at the buffet. He and Annie both loved dogs and when he came, he would play with Neo, our dog. He came to almost every Thanksgiving, starting from the very first one in 1993. At first, Annie seldom came, but in later years, she came with him as his health deteriorated.
Whereas George had a reputation of being quick to temper, Annie, being sweet tempered, was the perfect Ying to his Yang.
Annie was born on July 10th, 1933 to mother Sun Foo Jee and father Li Choi (Henry Li) in Shanghai, China. She was the second of three daughters. Annie’s father Henry was born in Trinidad and was educated at the University of London where he met Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Henry later became Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s English secretary.
Annie had a sweet tooth, and whenever she came up for our Thanksgiving gathering she would ask for extra helpings of Lissa’s cassava pone and some mango ice cream. Annie’s version of Thanksgiving dinner is cassava pone and lichee or mango ice cream as a first course, then for second course Jeff’s potato salad, then another serving of cassava pone and lichee ice cream as third course.
Annie had a generous heart. Knowing Junior liked her pepper shrimp, Annie always cooked her pepper shrimp specialty for Junior and it became known as “Junior’s pepper shrimp” and no one else was allowed to touch it. Annie liked to try her hand at new recipes. One year Annie and my sister Angie was here in July, so we had a birthday dinner for all the July birthday people – there were Jeff, Mom (Doris), Curtis, Annie and Angie at Bone-Fish Grill. There we had “Bang Bang” shrimp. Annie later replicated Bang Bang shrimp from her memory at her home.
As for Annie, cousin Joy remarked that “It is my belief that Annie came to truly regard Jamaica as her home because she had found kindness and trustworthiness in the community she served. Annie developed a slight Jamaican lilt in her speech and a twinkle was always in her eyes… as if she enjoyed the human condition in all its variations and foibles, especially the Jamaican human condition.”
Indeed, in their senior years, George and Annie developed a very close relationship with a Jamaican man and his wife they had come to love and trust. Welton “Tony” Nicholson and his wife Kerri gave George and Annie comfort, care, companionship, safety and dignity in their old age.
Tony and Annie sat and chatted at leisure every single day. Tony got to learn many of Annie’s stories, including the fact that her father was born in Trinidad, spoke English and had been the English secretary of Dr. Sun Yat-sen.
In closing,
Cousin Joy selected this quote from the late Irish-Catholic poet, John O’Donahue:
When orchids brighten the earth
(and) Darkest winter has turned to spring,
May this dark grief flower with hope
In every heart that loves you.
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We love you, Annie and George.