Wei-Wei

About Grace

(please excuse the plain text.... I'll be making this look better soon)

She was born Lin, En-Wei on April 20^th, 1962 in Taipei, Taiwan to Captain Andy and Mrs. Esther Lin. She was the first of three siblings and is affectionately known as "Wei-Wei". About 1971 the family moved to Kaoshiung due to her father’s work. Growing up in Taiwan was a fun time for her as she enjoyed swimming, piano, the cello and all of the yummy Chinese goodies that could be bought on many street corners. More photos here.

In 1977 she and her mom moved to the US to seek out a better life for the kids, and the remainder of the family immigrated shortly thereafter. It was a very traumatic time for her especially since she spoke almost no English. She adopted her American name of "Grace" which is the literal translation of En-Hwei. First stop was Los Feliz where she graduated from King Jr. High. Soon after they moved to La Palma where the family owned and operated a liquor store. Grace’s love of music continued as she participated in the band at Kennedy High where she graduated in 1980. During this time period, following the Lin’s lead, some of Grace’s closest friends from Taiwan also moved to the US.

Then it was on to UCLA's Music Performance school where she studied piano. Some highlights from UCLA include entering Marching Band Camp in September 1981 where she played percussion and UCLA went to the Blue Bonnet Bowl, and two Rose Bowl and Rose parade performances. That's when she met a very special group of people that have become some of her closest and dearest friends. She performed her senior recital in May of ’85 and graduated from UCLA in June.

Unsure of what to do with her career and music degree, she took a job in Business for about a year overseas in Taiwan using her fluent Mandarin and English skills. When she returned, she moved back in with her parents who by this time had already moved to their permanent residence in the San Diego and got a job with a computer company. Since she was spending most of her weekends travelling up to LA on the weekends to see all of her friends, she decided to use her business experience and got a job at a small financial company in Los Angeles in 1987. She then moved to her last and most enjoyable employment at Capital in 1989.

Around 1992, she and her sister Joan bought a condo in Signal Hill, which was halfway between their respective jobs. In 1994 she took a chance on a little personal ad in the Los Angeles Times, where she met Brian and quickly a romance began. In March of 1996 they married. It wasn’t long after, in August of ’97 when they were blessed by a gift from god known as Matthew.

Bad news came in October ’98 when Grace discovered she had breast cancer. After difficult chemotherapy, surgery and more chemotherapy it appeared that maybe the cancer was defeated in mid 1999. But unfortunately by later in the year it had spread to her bones. Throughout this year she went through numerous rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, and endured terrible pain and discomfort. She fought a tough fight but sadly lost the battle on Christmas morning 2000, with her Mom, Brian and Matthew by her side, when she went to be with the Lord.