The martial art grand master of a generation Lau Kar Leung passed away. His widow Mary Jean Reimer (Yung Jing Jing) yesterday brought her two daughters to the nunnery for scripture chanting and to arrange for Master Lau's affairs. The funeral has been scheduled to take place at the end of July at the Universal Funeral Parlor. Lau Kar Leung battled cancer for 18 years to the very end with his toughness, but in recent years due to fluctuating conditions he rarely appeared in public.
Yesterday, Yung Jing Jing released a photo with Msater Lau last month on her 49th birthday. At the time he still appeared to be in decent shape. Yung Jing Jing yesterday said, "I wasn't mentally prepared for this to happen!" The passing of Lau Kar Leung had a tremendous impact on Yung Jing Jing.
Yung Jing Jing yesterday went to the nunnery for meditation and today will make arrangements for the ceremony. Reporters yesterday got in touch with her. Has she already selected a photo for Master Lau? She said that Nat Chan Pak Cheung will be responsible for choosing a photo.
In the photo of Master Lau celebrating his wife's 49th birthday last month, he appeared to be in decent condition and was not as frail as imagined. Yung Jing Jing said, "Thus I never expected my husband would suddenly pass away." Yung Jing Jing will make arrangements for the chanting ceremony today, and again next Saturday and once every seven days until August 11.
Yung Jing Jing yesterday morning asked for help online. She wanted to contact Eric Tsang Chi Wai but he never replied, the reason was she was unable to find enough people for today's chanting and needed Chi Wai to get "reinforcement". Most of her friends were Christians. Yesterday afternoon, Yung Jing Jing on facebook told the media that she has already left her home and arrived at the nunnery so no one needed to wait near her home. Later she posted a photo with Lau Kar Leung from her birthday last month. Master Lau at the time appeared to be in decent condition, with a bandage on his hand perhaps due to the I-V. Yung Jing Jing wrote, "I never posted this photo online because I was afraid that everyone would see how poor he appeared. The balloon is still here, but he is not. With heartbreak and heartache, I can only rely on religion to temporarily ease my sorrow."
Yung Jing Jing on facebook posted details of Master Lau's funeral arrangements. The dates will be between July 23 or 24, Tsz Shan Monastery's Venerable Tsang Chit will decide. The location will be the Universal Funeral Parlor. The ceremony will be a mix of Chinese and Western ceremonies, as well as Chinese martial arts and Hong Kong film. Yung Jing Jing hoped that the funeral would shake off the upsetting and negative feeling of death, funeral hall and funeral services.
Although Ah Lek serves as the funeral committee chair, Yung Jing Jing still did everything herself. Because the body will be cremated, she was concerned with the coffin selection. Yung Jing Jing said that the traditional thick wood coffin left more wood ash and remains, she would like to find an environmentally friendly coffin. Master Lau agreed with that. If she could not find it in Hong Kong she would go elsewhere to look; some online suggested that "coffin within coffin" but she worried that the paper coffin would slip out. At the funeral a white "funeral lion dance" would take place. Yung Jing Jing at first wrote that Master Lau's disciple Sin Kwok Lam will be responsible for that, later it was changed to Master Lau's brother Lau Ka Wing.
Lau Kar Leung has been fighting cancer for years and has always been under Yung Jing Jing's care. Reportedly in the past decade she spent over HK$200,000 on cancer fighting medicine for her husband and bought a mansion in Guangzhou for him to rest in. She even gave him "super sports car" several times for him to flaunt with. Aside from money and material care, Yung Jing Jing attentively took care of her husband's health and coaxed him into the supposedly effective Budwig diet and personally made the cancer fighting lemon vinegar.
Source: Mingpao, Singtao
Translated by: hktopten
