Linsui Wu
COLUMBIA — Until she became ill in 2003, Linsui Wu was a familiar fixture at House of Chow, the restaurant her daughter Amy owned near the corner of Stadium and Broadway.
Mrs. Wu regarded the restaurant the way she did her own kitchen, her daughter said.
“She loved to clean the vegetables,” Amy Chow said. “She always washed more things like you would at your own home.”
Mrs. Wu died Monday, Feb. 8, 2010, with all six of her children present at her bedside. She was 85.
When Chow opened House of Chow with her former husband in 1981, Mrs. Wu was happy to come from Yilan, Taiwan, to assist her daughter. For years, she traveled between her two homes until she was diagnosed with multiple melanomas, her daughter said.
“She grew up during a depression, so food was really important to her,” Chow said.
She remembers how her mother hated to waste leftovers at the House of Chow.
“It was always killing her to watch all that food being thrown out,” she said.
Food brought the family together. Mrs. Wu and her daughter shared a passion for cooking that helped the restaurant flourish.
“Food is love, and it’s so much love from yourself to the other person,” Chow said. “When you’re serving food, you serve love.”
Mrs. Wu loved to cook and serve her family, until it became too difficult for her to continue about a year and a half ago.
She was born on July 13, 1924, in Yilan, Taiwan, to Wei and Sid Lin. She was married to Kensen Wu on Jan. 20, 1941.
Mrs. Wu’s children from Taipei, Taiwan, arrived two weeks before she died early Monday morning.
“Right until the last minute, she still worried about everybody else – their future, their well-being,” Chow said.
She said her mother wanted to return to Taiwan but needed to remain in Columbia permanently after her diagnosis.
“You never plan things like this, but everything unfolded in really good sense,” Chow said. “Everything makes sense now.”
Mrs. Wu is survived by her six children, Hsui-fong Lin, Amy Chow and An-yu Wu, all of Columbia, Chin-Shun Wu, Huei-ling Wu and Chi-ken Wu, all of Taiwan; a brother, Ton Lin of Taiwan; 10 grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.
Her husband died in 1974.
There will be no services in Columbia. Mrs. Wu will be cremated and her ashes taken to Taiwan. Memorial donations can be made to Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, 115 Business Loop 70 W., Columbia, MO 65201.
Condolences can be posted online at parkerfuneralservice.com.
“She kept saying she was such a lucky mother,” Chow said. “She felt like her whole life was worth while.”
