March 8, 2025, 11:00 AM
Folsom Funeral Home, Westwood, MA
I am Don Ng. As Ruth’s first cousin and Rob Jr.’s uncle, I would like to speak on behalf of the larger Ang/Ng family at this moment when none of us could have imagined being together again in just 2 months ago.
Our grandfather, Yet Toon arrived in America in 1910 as the first sojourner of our family to make a living in order to support his household in Toishan, China. As he took the courage to leave the comforts of a middleclass life, he unknowingly endowed generations of courageous people to make a difference in the world. Rob was one of the fourth generation of descendants.
Yet Toon did not know the hardship and suffering that he would endure, but he persevered, sent much needed money home, and in time brought Rob’s grandfather to continue working in America in 1930. Like Moses in the Bible who was more than comfortable in Egypt; trusted God, left the privileges he had with the Pharoah to seek the promised land. Rob’s great grandfather and his grandfather did that as well.
As one who has also lost siblings, this is a very difficult time for Josh and Christine. As one who endeared my mother during these sad events, this is a very difficult time for Ruth. We all have hopes and plans to live a long and productive life but when death shortens those plans, we are left with only dreams of what could be.
There will be times reminding you of Rob when you are doing everyday things. There will be times when your eyes look away on Rob’s personal things like his cameras. There will be sadness when Rob’s birthday is on the calendar. There will be fleeting wishes of what could have been done. And there most likely will be anguish and sorrow emerging in your sleep in the form of nightmares. These will never go away. But let us remind ourselves that these times are all normal and a part of being loving people. Rob is one of our beloved.
As I reflected on our larger family, our parents and our generation who all grew up at 166 Quincy Street in Roxbury, I realized that we have all lost loved ones. We still remember our lost loved ones because we are indeed, human. If we were not, we wouldn’t be here to cry on each other’s arms and to support one another in times of crises.
I don’t really know why our fathers went to First Baptist in Boston in the first place. We know that when they returned to Boston after serving for the US in WWII when they were not yet citizens, it was First Baptist who taught them English by reading the Bible. Florence Archibald was the Chinese Sunday School principal. People like Mildred Davis visited our homes on Quincy Street and even gave us English names. I sense that our parents thought that to become true Americans is to also become faithful Christians. As Christians, we want to believe that everything will be well and no suffering would come to us. Today, we feel and know suffering that is too much to bear.
God knows this and gave his Son, Jesus to us and the world so that we have the hope of everlasting life and that hope of a new tomorrow will not disappoint us. In Romans 8, the Apostle Paul said, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress. Or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who love us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus or Lord.” (8:35, 37-39)
We can have the confidence that even in the midst of lost, our loving God can be found through Christ Jesus.
When I think of Christ and how he connected us with God, we see that Rob, Jr. did that too. From his Shalalala Productions, he made content, products, life events, significant moments, matters that were not necessarily accessible to everyone, accessible and available for us to consume. From his work, he found a passion to make people laugh and enjoy what life has to offer and in turn, he brought relationships and community to us. From his produced videos and visuals about people for people, the Academy should have given Rob, Jr. an Oscar last Sunday. His love for family which many of us saw a couple of years ago in a family gathering in West Roxbury is about as Christ-like as anything we have witnessed.
Science has offered some data to support the idea of a broken heart. When we lose a loved one, we often feel that there’s this big hole in our hearts that we can’t seem to fill or close. We are heart-broken. And no platitudes or kind sympathies will ever close this hole.
This hole is God’s way of reminding us that we love and are loved. Instead of avoiding it or looking away from it, let us fill it with more times to be a family community to sojourn through this world together. Let us fill it with more significant care and love with those who are in desperation. Let us fill it with Rob’s humility and dry humor that disarm people to build friendships and relationships. Let us fill this hole with more compassion and determination especially during these days of untold suffering and grief. Let us make a difference in this world as Rob has in his life on earth.
Like you, I still remember all the members of our larger Ang/Ng family who have returned to the Lord. They have been faithful in life and now faithful in death as our fathers and grandfather were when they walked their sojourner steps to be in America. We now add Rob to this great cloud of witnesses and faithful people.
When Abraham and Sarah obeyed God and set out to receive an inheritance not knowing where they were going, it was their faith in God’s promises that they went. As the result of this, Abraham and Sarah were given descendants “as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.” (Hebrews 11:12)
Grandfather Yet Toon, our fathers and mothers left China with the promise of a new life. While one of the stars in heaven is now not with us but with God, we have faith that there will be many more stars of heaven and innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
God bless you and grant you peace.
Donald Ng, 3.8.2025