Kwong Chow (24 Aug 1950 - 8 Oct 2023)

On 8 Oct 2023, our beloved Kwong Biu Chow finally finished his journey on earth and went back to his eternal home in heaven, embraced by our Lord and relieved from the dementia he had endured for the past 12 months.

Born in 1950 in China (or we were told that he was actually born in 1948), Biu moved to Hong Kong with his parents when he was a toddler. He was the second among five brothers. He dropped out of school when he was in junior secondary school and started taking different jobs since then. He got married in 1976 and later that year, his only daughter was born. He got divorced a few years later and, with the help of his family, started to raise his daughter on his own.

Biu had worked for different jobs. At first, he worked in a Optical shop, then later he worked as a construction worker. Later, he became a van driver. He had a little accident at work in 1996 and had to rest from work. He decided to sit for an exam and became a taxi driver, a job that he had worked for more than 20 years before he retired.

Biu lived on his own for most of the time. But after his only grandson was born in 2011, he started to have plans to move closer to us and in 2015 he finally moved near to us and it's more like living together, except there's still sufficient space between the two households.

Biu was a music lover. He especially loved the English Oldies, 50s, 60s, 70s... Elvis, Beatles, ABBA, the Carpenters ... Every night, he would just turn on the radio and listened to all those songs. When there's no radio programmes, he would repeatedly listen to all the tapes or CDs he owned. And he loved all those old musical movies: Sound of Music, West Side Story, My Fair Lady... probably we had seen them for at least 50 times, each! He had at least a hundred CDs back in Hong Kong. Of course, we couldn't take all those CDs with us to the UK. So instead, he had stored more than 600 MVs in an USB.

Biu also loved traveling and taking photos. He would travel to different countries with tours a few times every year. He had been so many countries and did so many amazing things: apart from China and the many countries in Asia, he had also gone to Australia (including Great Barrier Reef), New Zealand, Europe, Russia, Maldives, and even South Africa (twice!)... so many that I have lost count already... Once, the two of us went to Saipan for skydiving and sea diving! Mountain hiking, skating and canoeing were also on his already-checked list.

In Aug 2020, just after his 70th birthday, Biu committed to Christ and became a Christian. But in Sept, one day, he discovered that he could not understand any single word of the newspaper and so, we took him to have a dementia assessment. The doctor made a diagnose, but suggested to have a MRI to run out other possibilities. So, a few days later, he had a MRI. But even before we left that centre, we were asked to ring his doctor immediate and were told that there was a tumour in his head. And this began our journey of his brain issue.

Fortunately, we were able to arrange medical treatment for Biu soon afterwards. He went through a 5.5 hour brain operation and then 30 sessions of radio therapy. In May 2021, after checking the MRI taken in April, the doctor told us that there's no sign of any tumour afterwards.

In 2021, we decided to apply for the BNO (visa). After a long wait, we finally got all the visa approval in later Dec and on 22 Feb 2022, we left Hong Kong for the UK, it was the second migration for Biu!

Soon after we arrived in the UK, Biu showed signs of dementia again. It was caused by the swelling in his brain (side effects of the radio therapy). In every 4-5 months, the situation would get to a point that we had to take him to the hospital for treatment. At first, he would recover after taking some steroid. But since Aug this year, the dementia symptoms never seemed to disappear and were progressing day by day.

In late Sept, we took Biu to the A&E again after a major fall taken place a few days beforehand. It was discovered that there's bleeding between the skull and the brain. He was already not eating and drinking well by that time, spending most of the time sleeping, though would still respond to us when being addressed. A few days later, he was transferred to the palliative ward in another hospital where he stayed there for four days. And in the morning of 8 Oct, he passed away quietly and peacefully. He was 73.

To the world, he was just an ordinary man, but to our family, he was the best father / father-in-law one could ever have, and he was a great and loving grandfather to his grandson.