A Tribute to Eddie K Au

With the passing of my father, things certainly haven't been easy lately.  To add to the frustration, I recently lost my iPhone that pretty much contains my life.  It's surprising how attached you can become with an inanimate object.  Anyway, this would be sometihng I'd turn to Eddie about, in order to get some comforting words about my loss.

First thing he would do is freak out about how much information I lost on the phone and tell me I'm an idiot for letting it happen.  I would probably turn back and get upset with him by letting him know I understand how it was stupid of me and it wasn't like I wanted it to happen.  I would then tell him there isn't anything I can do about it now, which in turn he would agree and then ask me what I will do next.  My answer would be a sad and bewildered, "I don't know".  There would be a short silence, then he would say "Don't worry.  Just don't let it happen again." with slight frustration. 

Overall, it was always comforting to know that even though Eddie wasn't happy with me for the unforunate things that happened (that I had control over), he would still muster up the compassion to make sure I was okay in the end. The fact that he would be upset with me, but in the end always want to and ended up still loving me, went such a long way.

I think it runs in the family, as I think my entire family would react the same way to each other.

I was walking around Old Orchard mall this weekend.  My friends and I had just walked out of the Maggiano's restaurant and we went past the Johnny Rockets.  Immediately, a memory of a lunch with Eddie, John, and Annie popped into my head.

Eddie was in town and he asked me to pick him up from one of his friend's events.  I agreed to this begrudgingly because I had plans to meet up with John and Annie at Old Orchard and was pressed for time.  I figured Eddie didn't want to waste his time spending time with my friends, so when I asked if he'd be willing to join us, I was happily surprised to hear him say yes.  So, we drove to Old Orchard (I think I ended up picking up John) and we went up to meet Annie at Old Orchard.  We were all hungry, so we ended up choosing one of the first places we saw, Johnny Rockets.  I don't remember the conversation that ensued, but I do remember Eddie had a good time.

I still remember which table we sat at and I believe this was the first (and maybe only) time Annie had a chance to meet him?  There are a lot of moments when I may pass by an area, hear a phrase, or even eat a certain food where a memory Eddie resurfaces.  It's a strange feeling, it makes me feel both happy and sad, but mostly happy.

A few days have passed since Christmas and it's obviously a time of year when we feel the loss of Eddie even greater.  A way I attempt to fill this void is by remembering some past Christmas memories of Eddie. 

One that sticks out the most in my mind is when Eddie and I were probably about 13 and 10, respectively.  It was a couple of days before Christmas and our family had placed all the wrapped gifts underneath the "tree".  It was really our old entertainment center, with our parents' plants placed on top (our regular Christmas tree spot was recently taken up by our round wooden table at this point, so we made do with what we had).

Eddie's curiosity and mischievousness always got the better of him and this day was not going to be any different.  He saw the gifts, found the ones addressed to him, and he proceeded to, ever so delicately, pull the tape off the sides then the top center.  When it was fully unraveled, he had exposed his brand new microscope kit given to him by Danny, May and Jimmy.  I think he even opened it up and played with it for a bit.  And now, this memory is a bit vague, but I believe he either turned to me and asked if I wanted him to help me open mine as well, I asked him to open it for me, or he was so anxious to see what I got that he just went ahead and delicately opened my gift without even asking me.  Either way, I remember I received a star map projector that explained the constellations.

Eddie and I were both very happy with our gifts.  And the fact it was opened secretly ahead of schedule somehow added to the excitement.  Eddie proceeded to seal the gifts back up with no sign of it ever being opened.  When Christmas day came, we opened the gifts up with just as much enthusiam as if we were seeing the gifts for the first time.

Does anyone else have any fond Christmas memories of Eddie?

As I think of Eddie and all that was accomplished by him during his 28 years, I can't help but also think of what he would doing now if he were still with us. I know one of his major plans was to move to Japan by the time he was 30 years old and live there for a year. In-between his transition, he would have also moved back home to Chicago for a short period of time.

However, I'm not exactly sure what he would have done while in Japan.  Whatever it may have been, I'm sure it'd be something I envy.  Pretty much everything Eddie impressed me.

Another Fourth of July has passed.  After each holiday, I can't help but reminisce about the previous Independence Days Eddie and I spent together.

One summer, about 20 years ago, Eddie and I received a bag of July 4th fireworks a couple of weeks early.  Eddie, always being an imaginative and impatient person, decided to play with fireworks (like these) before the Fourth, and came up with something himself.  He peeled apart each firecracker, poured about twenty firecrackers worth of powder on top of a piece of stuffing paper, and then wrapped it in the shape and size of a Hershey Kiss.

We called this new firecracker the "Volcano" because once you lit the top tip, it would start to spark and pop upwards.  It only lasted for about 10 seconds, but Zhen and I were impressed.  I think Eddie was hoping for something with more of a boom, but looking back at it now - thank goodness it didn't.

It was no surprise Eddie would become an engineer at some point in his life, since he always loved to take things apart and figure out how it worked.  This story reminds me about how he took apart a D battery once and learned that the black powder contained within them leaves carpets stained (even to this day), but I'll leave that for another post.

Eddie was always a natural success.  it wasn't merely his intellect that helped him through his endeavors, it was his sheer will.  He pushed through hard to learn anything new that came his way and interested him.  He's a great inspiration for me with all he'd been able to do and his ambition for wanting to do more.  I saw his sheer will in action while he was in the hosptial.  Each day, there was a moment where it would look as though he was struggling to overcome his illness.  Though it still hurts to think about about how much he had to endure, I am in aw of how he always gave it his all - even till the end.

During the visit when my mom and I went to visit Eddie in Boston for the first time he got admitted to in-patient care, I remember walking into Eddie's hospital room and sitting down in a chair next to his kraft-matic bed.  He was watching "The Deadliest Catch" on Discovery Channel and he just commented, "I like this show."  And my reply was "yeah, me too.  It's pretty cool."

This isn't some extremely significant memory, but I just wanted to log and share it.