The Apricot Outlook of Katherine Koon Hung Wong

I was born in Honolulu, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii in 1951 at Kapiolani Hospital. We moved to San Francisco in 1958; one year before it became our 50th state. When I was 50 years old, I visited the hospital where I was born at Kapiolani Hospital. I found out from the lady at the gift shop that after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, the Labor and Delivery department was located in the basement to protect the mother and baby. Then, later on, it was moved to the 3rd floor.I am the oldest of 6 children and the 4th grandchild but the first grandchild to carry on the Wong name. My brother, Wesley, is the 4th born and his 1st son, Daniel, is my father’s 4th grandchild and the 1st to carry on the Wong name. My father was the 4th of 6 children and my mother was #7 of 8 children. My parents were the first from both families to get married.I have a BS degree in Business Management- Personnel and Industrial Relations at California State University, Hayward and a AA degree in Retail Marketing at Chabot College, Hayward.I work full time at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Oakland, CA as a Certified Nurse Assistant in the Operating Room department for 14 years and also part time on weekends with 2 clients in Home Health with 1 of the clients as a Licensed Vocational Nurse for another 42 hours.I have worked in the Paint industry for 34 years with Sherwin Willians, Glidden Paint, and Fuller O’Brien Paint. I was a security guard for 8 years and I still carry a current security guard card. I was also a newspaper boy for 10 years. My first job was at Kentucky Fried Chicken from Thursday, January 11, 1968 to 1972 and started at $1.35 per hour and 4 years later, I was making $1.85. My first raise was on March 2, 1968 for $0.05 cents. Then, I went on to become the Assistant Manager for Shakey’s Pizza.I have gone on several Surgical Missions to Guatemala twice and once to Ecuador as a Sterile Processing tech.I was first interested in genealogy in 1972 and wrote to my grandfather, Leonard Wong. He wrote to me on November 11, 1972 and I still have the letter.I am planning my first trip to China to visit my great grandparent’s villages in October 2018.I was participating in the American Cancer 24 hour Relay for Life walkathon at Oakland Technical high school on Saturday, July 19, 2014. We started at 11:00 a.m. and I walked continuously around the 1/4 mile track until 4:00 a.m. the next morning when my son, Kayin, called me and said 'Dad, aunty Linda just called me and said that grandma was dying. I had just completed 200 laps and had to leave the field. I drove south about 30 miles to Fremont where my mom was being transferred to Washington Hospital from Parkside Care about a half-mile away. She passed away in transit.'