Name/Title
Mary Woo - Peacock - Western Park ApartmentsDescription
Mary Woo - Peacock - Western Park Apartments
Crafts were a part of her family tradition in Shanghai, where Mary Woo was born in 1926. Her brother carved wooden boxes and Mary, the second child of five, sewed pillows and embroidered flowers on Chinese slippers.
After marrying at the age of 18, she moved to Hong Kong in 1953 with her husband and one of her four daughters. It took three years before she could be reunited with her other three children. Mary lived there for 20 years and received training in fine Chinese arts. When her second daughter called her and her husband to live in San Francisco, she learned gin rummy from elderly women she cared for.
Mary still knits and paints ceramic plates. Realizing the importance of maintaining the use of her hands, for 40 years she has “prayed Tai Chi” and done a half-hour of hand exercises daily in bed before rising.
