Hwei-Chen Pan

Hwei-Chen Pan, age 89, passed away after a three-year battle with liver cancer due to Hepatitis B. Thankfully the passing was relatively quick and without pain.

Hwei-Chen was born on May 7, 1933, in Chaiyi, Taiwan. Then from the age of 8-12, she lived in Japan where her father obtained his engineering degree from Waseda University. Then, because of WW II, she came back by herself to live with her aunt.

Meanwhile, her father took the rest of his family to China and started his engineering career. After WWII, he returned with the rest of the family and reunited with Hwei-Chen. Her father owned two houses but they were destroyed by American B52 bombers. The family was left destitute.

She married In-Chang Pan and had their first child, Chun Pan, in 1955. The husband left for Sacramento, CA to pursue his master's degree, while Hwei-Chen stayed behind alone with the child. The husband came back and became an associate professor at the National Taiwan University. They had a second child, Julie Pan, in 1961.

Then again, Hwei-Chen was left alone with two children when the husband went to America to pursue his Ph.D. In 1962, Hwei-Chen rejoined her husband at Perdue University with her two young children.

Life was difficult in this new land. She did not speak English and what little money her husband earned, from his fellowship stipend, was sent back to Taiwan.

When the husband finished his studies the family moved to Canada for his post-doctoral position. They only stayed two years before they finally settle on Long Island, New York where her husband became a research pathologist with the Department of Agriculture.

Life was tranquil and quiet on the eastern tip of Long Island. They raised their children in an idyllic environment of beaches and sand as her husband's career progressed.

When the children went off to college the empty nest effect became overwhelming in this rural environment. Her husband retired and they decided to move back to their homeland, Taiwan.

They stayed for four years but discovered that the land of their youth had entirely disappeared due to industrialization and rapid growth. They then moved to California to be closer to their son and his new family. Eventually, the daughter and her family moved to California as well.

Life was once again idyllic. Her children and the three grandchildren all lived in Northern California. But this ideal situation changed shortly when the son moved to Colorado in 1994.

Hwei-Chen and her husband were getting older and they wanted to live closer to the children. So they moved near to their daughter and her family in Sacramento. They stayed for four years then they moved again to be closer to the son in 2010.

Hwei-Chen and her husband lived in a mostly Japanese-occupied apartment complex, in Denver, because they both spoke Japanese fluently.

The husband was soon after diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. His condition became such that they moved him to the son's house. The son's house was too small to accommodate both of the parents. So Hwei-Chen continued to live by herself downtown.

In 2014 her husband died. The son asked her to move in with them but she refused. As it turned out she enjoyed living downtown. After so many years of rural and suburban living, she was finally able to live in a more cosmopolitan environment. She lived three blocks away from the heart of the city and enjoyed her daily stroll on 16th Street Mall.

She was diagnosed with cancer in 2019. For three years she tried various chemotherapy methods. The final chemotherapy drug made her sicker than the cancer itself. She decided not to have further treatment.

She passed away on June 21, 2022.