Dog Eaters

Remembering Gloria Lee Wong

Posted on 08.25.24 5:51AM under Uncategorized

At the Martha’s Vineyard Campground Tabernacle in Massachusetts, Dustin Wong re-created this song from scratch, building layers of atmosphere on his pedals. For years, my mother wanted Dustin to play on Martha’s Vineyard. It took her passing to make it happen…

I’m Malcolm, the oldest of Gloria’s five children and the father of Dustin, her first grandchild. I was known as Stephen when our family first starting going to the Campground in the 60s. At that time, my mother was identified and self-identified as Mrs. Backman Wong.

After my father passed on in 1995, she sold the family hom and built a house in Vineyard Haven, moving permanently and year-round to Martha’s Vineyard. She started a second life as Gloria Violet Lee Wong, widening her horizons. Part of the process was assisted by traveling. She embedded and engaged meaningfully with the people she met.

In her later years, she traveled with companions and even had plans to visit with us on Maui in March of this year with Uncle Rob. Just two years ago she went on a road trip with Dustin, driving down from Vancouver to San Diego, dropping in on friends and relatives, just the two of them.

Her 90th birthday was celebrated in the Bay Area. She travel there with someone that I hadn’t heard about before, so the usual questions were asked: How had they met? How long had she known her? What did she do? Her age, etc. G’ma Gloria said: “Oh, she’s old,” and when a 90 year old says a person is old, well the next obvious and natural question is, “How old?” The answer: “She’s retired. She’s younger than you!”

That was Gloria Wong, telling it like it is and keeping it real.

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