Alex Chiang: A Morning
Serenader
As
teenagers, John and Grace Chiang had never slept in on
weekends. Every Saturday morning at 7 a.m., their father,
Alex Chiang, would sing hymns at the top of his voice in
the kitchen to wake them and his wife, Sunny. If no one
stirred after 10 minutes, he would walk into each bedroom
to perform.
"We would say, 'Get out, Dad,' and he would only try
to sing louder and louder until we got up," John said. "I
complained about it all the time. Now I miss it."
Alex Chiang, 51, and his family traveled from their
home in New City, N.Y., to Franklin Park, N.J., every
Saturday to meet with other members of the
nondenominational church that he helped found more than a
decade ago. The Chiangs would stay the night with others
and return home on Sunday evening. "He's a very faithful
person," his wife said.
Mr. Chiang, a computer specialist at Marsh &
McLennan, treated other church members with such
kindness, said Paul Du, a close friend, that more than
1,200 people came to his memorial service in October.
After John Chiang, 22, moved into a sparsely furnished
Manhattan apartment as a young banker, he seldom visited
his parents. "So on Labor Day weekend, my dad enticed me
home by promising that he would bring me to Ikea," John
said. "We bought a lot of heavy stuff. He dropped me off
in my apartment, and then he was gone." That was the last
he saw of his father. Now John has moved back in with his
mother.
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