Elkin Yuen: Creative
Vacationer
Wall
Street brokers often complain about how much work they
have to do in such little time that they can't even
contemplate taking a vacation. But not Elkin Yuen, who
worked for Carr Futures.
Every year, he and his wife, Cella, took two major
vacations and plenty of smaller ones, to get away from
the city they grew up in. It was important, he always
told his wife, to have fun, to live in the moment. (And
to play golf, go to the beach and gamble, if at all
possible.) Even when his wife had the urge to save money
more quickly to buy a house, "he'd rather spend a few
thousand dollars going away for a week than save the
money," his wife recalled. And with that perpetual smile
and infectious joie de vivre, who could say no?
Hawaii, Cancún, Las Vegas, Myrtle Beach, Lake
Tahoe, St. Maartens, Walt Disney World: they all made
their way into the overflowing photo albums in the Yuens'
Flushing home. Oh, and Aruba, twice. "I'm so glad he
pushed me," Mrs. Yuen said. "I would have lost all that
time with him."
Perhaps the only thing Mr. Yuen loved more than going
on vacation was doting on his daughter, Nicole, now 3.
These days, Nicole is still not sure what happened, but
she does miss her father. She sometimes tells her mother:
"I want Daddy to come home. Daddy used to take me to
Chucky Cheese."
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