Suey Lin Dong was born in 1922 in a small village in Toisan, China, and passed away peacefully in hospice care in the early morning of the last day of 2023 in Long Island, New York, surrounded by all his children. He was just shy of 102. For more than seven decades, he was married to his wife, Shau Yip, who passed away in 2020.

His name means “fortunate year” in Chinese. “Propitious century” might have been more accurate to describe his life in its entirety. From humble beginnings in rural China, he made his way to America and lived to see seismic changes in the world.

In the early 1950s, in a time of great upheaval in China, Suey Lin and Shau Yip moved with their four daughters to Hong Kong, where their son was born in 1955. In 1960, the couple and their three youngest children flew to New York City and moved into a three-room apartment in Chinatown. Suey Lin began working in a fortune-cookie factory, sharing Cookie Machine No. 2 with the future president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association.

For decades, he carefully folded other people’s luck. He and his wife worked hard and saved, bit by bit. In 1980, they bought their first house in Flushing, Queens. His mother gifted him a dracaena plant as a housewarming present; under his attentive care, it grew big and healthy. Every morning, Suey Lin and Shau Yip took the Q26 bus and the No. 7 subway train to the 6 train back to Canal Street in Chinatown to go to work: him at the fortune cookie factory, her at the garment factory. After they retired, in 1992, they helped raise their two youngest grandchildren. In 1997, they all moved to Long Island, and the dracaena plant moved with them. Fifty-four years later, that dracaena still watches over the living room, with cuttings transplanted to the households of his children and grandchildren.

Just like the dracaena, his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren have thrived. (His youngest grandchildren remember him as a fierce defender, once yelling and running out into the backyard with a shovel in his hands ready to fend off the threat of the neighbor’s yappy little dog.) Suey Lin liked babies a whole lot, and especially loved watching his five great-grandchildren grow, thoughtfully bestowing Chinese names upon each of them. He was the best cook in the family; his soy-sauce chicken and wok-fried lobster are the stuff of legend. He cut his own hair every month or so until the end. His hands were exceedingly gentle, and patient; so was he. Though he was generally quiet and reserved, we all loved making him laugh—a triumph, because any smile or laugh from him was infectious, and lit up the room.

He was a devoted longtime fan of the New York Knicks. Watching his team play was appointment viewing; if he couldn’t make a game when it aired, his children would tape it for him. (He loved the Yankees, too, but maybe just a little bit less.)

How glad we are to have gotten to visit with him at home just two weeks ago—fresh from watching a Knicks game!—to make him laugh a few more times, to watch his face glow with happiness, to give him one more hug. He lived an extraordinary life, and we know he is resting well in the company of Shau Yip and other loved ones who have passed. We love him very much, and we’ll miss him dearly.

Suey Lin is survived by his daughters Selena, Rosena, Shuet, and Jan; his son, John, and John’s wife, May; his grandchildren Andy, Stephen, Bonnie, Christopher, Justin, and Kevin; and his great-grandchildren Felix, Katherine, Teddy, Abigail, and Ethan.

To send flowers to the family or place a tree in memory of Suey Lin Dong, please visit our Tribute Store.