Chapter 1 - The road to baptism of Yvonne, Christine and Samuel

Our son, Ian had already left home for almost 3 years. He left for to Hong Kong right after his graduation in 2002, found no job there during the Asian financial crisis, experienced all the difficulties of SAR in 2003 yet he decided staying on and not returning to Canada. Our daughter, Yvonne had also left home in 2005 when she suddenly gave up walking. Since then the Health Ministry sent her to a senior house and shared room with a 103 year old lady. Although the old lady was very happy with Yvonne’s company, Christine fought hard with the Ministry and eventually Yvonne settled in a foster family.

Yvonne was born with Prada Willi Syndrome, kind of gene disorder. One of the main problem in her young age was she could not control her appetite and tended to eat a lot and gained weight very fast. People with similar problem could gain weight up to 300, 400lbs easily. We were told the life expectancy was only 20, no medication; little information was available on their way of life after 20. Every 6 months we took her for medical check, every time the doctor and nurses would point finger at Christine and me scolding us if her body weight increased by more than 5 pounds in 6 months. Christine and I decided to apply strict control on food at home. We installed a lock on the kitchen door and kept the door locked all times. There would be no candy, sweet, chocolate, pop, ice cream, chips, nothing, absolutely nothing fancy or non-essential at home. There would be no birthday cake for birthday party, no exception even for 90 years old grandma. Ian was told he could have those junk foods at school or outside the house not in Yvonne’s presence.

It was a hot summer long week end in late August of 2006. Christine and I, the two still living in the house, decided to downsize and to sell the house. To put up the house for sale, we wanted to paint the backyard fence and the gazebo. I woke up around 5:30 am as usual, started climbing up and down the ladder fixing and painting the roof of the gazebo. Around 9:30am I suddenly felt very dizzy when I came down from the ladder. My whole head was spinning; I held again the fence and yelled to Christine who was painting on the other side of the yard. She came over and helped me into the house. She put me down on a chair and went to tidy the paint and tools lying all around the backyard. The last thing I could remember was trying to stand up, falling flat on to the ground, and becoming completely blackout.

In Samuel’s blackout, Christine would continue.