Irene Mock Wong
June 9, 1925-Feb. 10, 2016
Atherton, California

Irene Mock Wong of Atherton, California, on June 9, 1925, was born on the corner of Homer and Ramona in Palo Alto by Dr. Edith Johnson, first female pediatrician of Palo Alto. Dr. Johnson home delivered and named all the seven Mock kids, James, Mary, Charles, Frank, Joseph, Irene and Ruth who already passed. They were born to Sam Ying Mock and Fong Shee Yee who made their home in Palo Alto in the early 1900s shortly after the 1906 earthquake. Sam was part owner of City Café, where Sprouts now resides on University Avenue in Palo Alto. As a teenager she enjoyed her carefree days of horse rides, hay rides, days at the Rinconada Pool, high school dances, traveling with the basketball team, driving up to San Francisco to enjoy dinners, musicals and Playland at the Beach near Golden Gate Park.

As an Oakland College of Arts and Crafts graduate, Irene worked for GE and SRI as an illustrator. She met and married Chung Hoi Wong, and they briefly moved to Southern California but moved back since her heart and father were in Palo Alto. Shortly after they adopted their daughter Kimberley in 1971, her father passed away. She and her family then moved to Hong Kong from 1974-1978 and lived during the summers in the family Queen Anne Victorian home at 225 Homer Ave. Throughout her life she loved travel, art and family. In the 1990s to combat the empty nest syndrome, she traveled frequently to Hong Kong and also became a prolific watercolor and Chinese brush painter.

Beginning in 1998 and again in 2000, she became a doting grandmother to Connor Ng and Cathryn Ng. Many happy days were spent watching them grow and attending birthdays, school events, going on trips to weddings, locally in California and trips to the East Coast and Europe with sister Mary. She later on reconnected with her brother Joe and his family from Southern California. A reunion of friends and family for her 90th birthday was the highlight of last year. Only a little over a month after her last living sibling, Joe, passed away, she succumbed to a cold and passed peacefully in her sleep on Feb 10, 2016, at 90 years old. She will be missed deeply by her daughter, friends and family who knew and cared for her and were amazed by her sharp mind, easy demeanor, generosity and fantastic stories of yesteryear.