Der Soon Yet

My Grandmother's maiden name was Der Soon Yet who was married to Lee Duck . I flew to Kelowna this summer to meet with Tom Soon who was 95 years old and was a baby when my Grandmother was their servant girl at the age of 15.  My grandmother at the age of two months was sold to a wealthy Chinese family in Guangdong Province to pay off a debt and became an indentured servant girl to a new born girl of the same age who belonged to the wealthy family. My grandmother grew up with the new born girl for 15 years.  At age 15, the girl from the wealthy family was betrothed in an arranged marriage to a 30 year old Chinese businessman living in Vancouver who paid for the passage of his 15 year old bride and my grandmother the 15 year old servant girl to come to Canada who was Tom Soon's father.  The young bride at age 16 gave birth to  Tom's eldest brother
and it was my Grandmother's responsibility to look after the new born baby.  I remember my Grandmother telling me , that a Soon family member came to her while she was looking after the new born and said there was a gentlemen in the next room who was looking for a wife and if she wanted to she had the choice of marrying this man or she could remain their servant girl.  My grandmother took a peek and saw her future husband Lee Duck and thought he looked so handsome in his wide brimmed hat, his nice white suit and the spats on his shoes. She thought I might as well have my own babies rather than look after someone else's babies.  My grandmother's brother who was a Der tried to buy her back from the Soon's because he did not want her to marry Lee Duck but Soon had struck a business deal with my Grandfather Lee Duck to purchase my grandmother so Soon could recoup the passage fees and probably the Head tax fees for bringing over my Grandmother. So in summary my grandmother was bought and sold three times.  My grandmother gave birth to six children in Canada---three boys and three girls.  From these children came a host of cousins and I have fond memories of our family get togethers with all the cousins.  We just had a family reunion in Lethbridge to commemorate 100 years of Lee's living in Lethbridge from 1914 to 2014.  Four generations of Lee descendants came from ages  8 weeks,  1 to 2 years,  4 to 10,  12 to 18,  25 to 65 and the elders 85 to 95.  Relatives came from Beijing, Melbourne, New York, Toronto. Utah, Colorado, Vancouver, Edmonton, Red Deer, Victoria, Lethbridge, Taber, Kelowna, Kingston, Whitehorse for a three day reunion.  Below is a picture of Der Soon Yet at about age 18. She is just a gorgeous beautiful girl , no wonder my Grandfather wanted her as his bride. My grandmother was one tough resilient lady. I remember my Grandmother when I was six years old and was present at her funeral when she died and I was in my late teens.  She knew the names of all her grandchildren and great grandchildren and loved them all.