Joopeng Chan Chinlund

JooPeng Chan Chinlund passed away on November 1, 2009 after suffering a massive stroke on Friday. JooPeng was born in Medan, on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia on August 28, 1932. She told many stories to her children of the tropical paradise she lived in as a child in the 1930s and the challenges that she and her family survived during the subsequent Japanese occupation during WW2. During the occupation, Peng was able to study piano and won a piano competition in Singapore in 1951. She came to the United States in 1952, where she received her BA from West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1955. She then moved to New York City to study from master piano teacher, Beveridge Webster, and worked as a guide at the newly formed United Nations. She met Thomas Joseph Chinlund in New York and they were married in 1957 in Medan. From 1957 to 1968 JooPeng and Tom lived in Ohio, New Jersey and Illinois, before moving back to in New York City where they raised their two children, Monica Siang Lee and Augustus Ho and continued to reside until 2001 when they moved to their current home in Taos. JooPeng loved to play the music of Chopin, Bach, Beethoven, Debussy and many others. Her passion for music was as fiery and intense as her love of children, flowers, nature and sharing ideas on art, culture, politics, metaphysics, spirituality, and healing. She was a lifelong seeker and artist, always discovering new ways of healing, breakthroughs in scientific, spiritual, and artistic endeavors. She also loved great food and made many memorable meals featuring Chinese, Indonesian and international dishes. She was a devoted wife, to her husband, Tom, and mother to her two children, Monica and Gus. She also had a loving connection with her grandson Jobim. Above all, she loved the playful brilliant nature of children whom she had an immediate connection with. Her playful, artistic spirit was evident in everything she did, particularly her unique style of dressing, always sporting a fabulous hat, which made her immediately recognizable to many Taoseños, and New Yorkers before that. She is survived by her husband Tom, her children Gus and Monica, son-in-law Jonathan Zeichner, grandson, Jobim Shen Qi Zeichner, brothers, Peter, Jin, and sister, Chiew. This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet. - Rumi For information regarding a memorial gathering on Friday, November 27, please email guschinlund@gmail.com or check JooPengs memorial page at the Rivera Funeral Home website: http://www.riverafuneralhome.com