Sylvia T. Chen

Sylvia Tung-Huan Lin Chen passed away on January 11, 2017.

Sylvia was born in Beijing to a large and illustrious family: a father who was a noted jurist and a mother who bore 6 daughters and 5 sons, half of them older than Sylvia and the other half younger. Sylvia earned her bachelor’s degree in economics at Nanking University, and near the end of World War II she won a government scholarship, made her way over the Himalayas to India, and sailed on a U.S. naval vessel to San Francisco – to go to graduate school. When she got to San Francisco, she was met by her beau, Kang Chen. They had been separated by the war for eight years, and got married right away. She never did go to graduate school.

After a short sojourn in Canada, the Chens moved back to Shanghai in 1946. Their first son Bob was soon born in Shanghai, and four years later their second was born in Hong Kong. The family moved to London, England for a year in 1951, and then back to Hong Kong, where Kang became a CPA and built a decent accounting practice. Sylvia brought up the children and pursued her hobbies of reading and sewing. After their sons went to the U.S. for college, in 1968 Kang and Sylvia moved to Hartsdale, NY, where Sylvia enjoyed the life of a suburban housewife. After retirement, they moved to Brookline, MA to be near Bob, now pursuing a career in computer science, and Richard, now a banker.

Sylvia was always meticulously neat and organized. All her life she kept the family’s books more professionally than most bookkeepers, and every unused household item was dated, labeled, and stored appropriately. Being warm-hearted to a fault, she loved hosting her many relatives and friends, few of whom lived in Hong Kong. Since Hong Kong had become a wonderful place to visit, especially with an expert local guide, she was constantly helping visiting friends and family enjoy Hong Kong. Years later, wherever Bob and Richard went in the U.S. they could count on relatives eager to repay Sylvia’s hospitality in kind.

A short time after Kang passed away, Sylvia decided to move into South Cove Manor nursing home in Quincy. The staff there would always tell her children what a nice lady she is – almost never complaining, but often wearing a smile and always eager to help. Having lived in Beijing, Canada, London, Hong Kong, she was fluent in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, in addition to speaking her native Fuzhou dialect. As a result, even in the nursing home she occasionally could help interpret.

Sylvia leaves her son Robert Chen of Somerville, MA with his family (wife I-Yu, children Clara and David, and grandchildren Emily and Andrew), and her son Richard Chen of Las Vegas, NV with his family (wife Janice and daughter Melissa), and numerous relatives and friends Now that she has left us, we will remember her good humor and warmth, and miss her.