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Maria Yuk-Tuen Yu
December 20, 1939 - April 2, 2015
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<div itemprop="description">OBITUARYMaria Yuk Tuen Yu of 4044 Black Willow Court, Mississauga, born December 20, 1939 in Macao, passed away peacefully in the early hours of April 2, 2015, at the Toronto General Hospital, after losing a courageous battle, firstly against lung cancer and finally succumbed to other complications, with her husband and her daughter by her bedside. <br /> <br />She will be dearly missed by her loving husband Andrew, her caring daughter Caroline, her developmentally challenged son Ken, her compassionate son-in-law Dominik, and her affectionate grandsons Evan, 13 and Kaedan, 9. Her older brother Truson To and his wife Diana, her younger brother Eddie To and his wife Judy, and her younger sister Iris Huang and her husband Eddie Huang; will miss her culinary creations and frequent advice on health issues. <br />She was born in Macao when it was a Portuguese Colony, but fled to several southern Chinese regions with her parents and three siblings from the invading Japanese armies. After the end of the Second World War, she lived in Quangzhou until 1949, when the family moved to Hong Kong, a British Colony, where she studied in the True Light Public School and received her School Leaving Certificate from the Belilios Public School in 1957. As a caring and inquisitive young woman, she chose nursing as her calling and became a nurse, trained by British Matrons, and graduated in 1959. After six years of dedicated work at Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong and Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kowloon, she immigrated to Canada with the expectation that she would travel more and understand other cultures and societies. <br /> <br />In Canada, she first worked at the Vancouver General Hospital, then moved to Montreal and worked at the Royal Victorian Hospital. As her husband had to relocate in Toronto, took a job at the Scarborough General Hospital. She then resided in Ajax, and worked at the Ajax-Pickering General Hospital. As her husband took up a new position in Mississauga, she worked at the Monsheong Home for the Aged in the Toronto China Town, where she retired from in early 2000. <br /> <br />In her spare time, she volunteered to help with the developmentally challenged pre-school children being served by the Ajax-Pickering and Whitby Association for the Mentally Retarded in Ajax. She was very active in raising funds for the Association. As her son was diagnosed with the Autism Syndrome, she was also actively fund raising for the Toronto Chapter of the Ontario Autism Society. Together with her husband, she was able to maintain Ken in the home without being institutionalized such that Ken was able to achieve his potentials. She was an active participant in lobbying for the right for inclusion of the developmentally challenged children in the public school systems in Ontario. <br /> <br />She is resting at the Glen Oaks Funeral Home and Cemetery at 3164 Ninth Line (403 and Dundas Street West), Mississauga. <br />Friends and relatives will be able to visit her on Tuesday April 7 between 3 and 5 pm, and attend the Celebration of Her Life on Wednesday April 8, starting at 11 am. <br /> <br />In lieu of flowers and cash, her family will graciously appreciate donations in memory of Maria Yu to one of the following charitable organizations: <br />1) The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation <br />2) Canadian Cancer Society Ontario Division. <br />3) Canadian Brest Cancer Foundation. <br />4) Lung Cancer Canada. <br /></div>