A young Chinese couple introduced almost all building blocks for a new life in the United States: a graduate degree, a close community of a friend, and a promising career.
After that, in 2008, I tried for many years for my baby, and the last missing work came: my son's Edward.
KAIYAN MAO and YU ZHOU have invested everything in valuable sons, called FUGUI, jokingly. They have moved to the top public school district in the outskirts of Virginia. They registered Edwards in piano, martial arts and dance. Then there was a figure skating -Of course -the passion of Edward.
Even if they concentrated on their sons's academic and extracurricular development, Zhou and Maozawa were far from the parents of stereotyped Asian tigers. Rather, the coach and coach remembered that they made his own decision and encouraged him to pursue his own way.
“They were not at the top, but they were always there,” said Edward's skate coach Karl Strid. Parents every trip. “As you know, you can go to the event and one of you can stay at home,” he said. “But they both want to be there for him.”
It is a way that everyone seems to remember the family of the circumference: three unavailable units. Also, on Wednesday night, it was a composite tragedy of a Wednesday night collision between the Army helicopters across the Potomac River in Washington. Like Zhous, the family, who quickly got lost, left an empty house and a gap in the neighborhood and the entire community.
“I have been teaching Edward Piano with the same three students in the past 13 years, basically the same three students every Sunday, for the past 13 years.
Zhous is an event that features a top skater at all levels of sports from US figure skate championships in Wichita, Kansas, and many subsequent training camps in the United States. I was in people. All 64 passengers and crew members of the jet died in a crash, like the three helicopters. Investigators are still working to understand which factors have played a role.
In particular, many of the young skaters who died were Asian people, reflecting the advantage of Asian Americans decades ago. Experts include many of the remarkable Asian Americans, such as the early pipeline of pioneers of sports Asian, such as Christie Yamaguchi and Michelle Kwan, and the average household income of East Asian as a group. I think it is due to the factors.
Mr. Shu and Maozawa, who were born and raised in mainland China, cut a slightly unusual way to live in the United States. After graduating from a variety of universities in Shanghai, the couple met while working in Singapore, a small network on Singapore at the time, according to a friend of a close family, Janet Fu.
Around 2000, they moved to the United States to pursue a graduate school. His background was in architecture, but Shu pivoted to study computer science. Mao registered the MBA program at the University of Indiana in Blueminton. Over the years, some friends and colleagues have come to know them with Joe and Stephanie, a hired English name.
Later, the couple moved to Evans Building, Indiana, where Mr. Hair was a series of financial employment and secured her first. The couple quickly gained a reputation in the close circle of Chinese families to hold a noisy party in a cozy apartment featuring a rich wine and traditional Chinese card games.
They were also known for their occasional purchases of sprinkles, as if the white LA-Z-BOY LOVE SEAT with ivory appeared in their house. And the couple's best friend, Yanling Lu, was remembered from the Evans Building.
“Usually, in the case of young couples in China, they are all upright, so they may be nervous with money,” Lou said. “But for Kai and Yu, they knew how to enjoy life.”
Around 2007, the couple moved to northern Virginia, where Zhou's brother lived. Immediately afterwards, Mr. Ma gave birth to Edward.
They bought a small house on a quiet and forest of Fairfax, Virginia, and built a larger brick house with a vast front and the sun's room.
coach
Edward started a serious skating lesson at the age of six and started training under Strid, a former member of the Swedish National Figure Skating Team. He was one of Strid's first student.
In an interview on Friday, the coach reminded me that Edward was a cute little child and was excited about learning sports. Edward often approaches him for hugging, so for many years, Strid said he laughed before his tears, who would turn his nose in front of his jacket.
After not creating a Swedish Olympic team, Strid decided to become a coach to help others to achieve unusual goals. But the boy's parents were skeptical.
“I wanted him to enjoy it and do something sporty,” said Strid. “And you know, they have always trusted me.”
In the first regional championship in Edward, when he was 10 years old, Strid remembered, and he finished almost at the end. My parents asked him and said, “Does he really have what he needs?” Give him a little time. Stick to the routine.
“I really think he can do more than you expect,” Strid remembered what he said.
The following year, at the national qualifying series event, Edward accurately did what he said. He won.
“They were very shocked,” the coach said about Edward's parents.
Collie Heynos, one of Strid's student, also won his first major skate medal in the competition. Strid thanked the timing, especially looking back, said that it was perfect for them to achieve their goals together.
Corie, his parents, Stephanie and Roger were also on the crash airplane. The third skater of Strid, a 12 -year -old development camp in Wicita, Briel Bayer, was on an airplane with his mother, Justina. Three children and five parents, who had a deep relationship for many years, went out and outside the ice.
“I was hoping to meet them again,” said Strid.
“I can't work for a while. It's too difficult to enter an ice link.”
Both Core and Edward were 16 years old, and their coaches remembered almost everything together. Their parents' cars were pools for comparison to the city from each area of Washington. They trained with Strid and his colleagues, Michael Olovson, and humble outside the link. Both were strict competitioners who wanted to win, but they had never JE for each other's success.
“They were very nice,” he said, his voice was broken. “When others did well, they were always excited.”
And my parents came with those athletes. He spent a couple of hours with athletes and athletes six days a week, and had to coordinate with their parents so that skaters can juggling, competitions, travel, and studies.
“You will be intimate with them,” he said.
In Wichita on Sunday, Strid went for dinner with Corie's parents. On Monday, the first day of the three -day national development camp session, he had dinner with Edward's parents at the hotel. Mr. Strid talked to them about Edward's future and joked that Edward would not know which university to apply for -he might be accepted by all of them.
“That's what we were laughing, and there was a problem that he was too smart,” he said. “You can definitely see what he was good at.”
Strid said that three of his skaters (Edward, Collie, Briel) were proud of their participation in the development camp this year. Edward and Corie are approaching the qualifying of the US State Championships, which Edward was almost this year, and Collie was proceeding smoothly next year. Their goal was to create a national team.
The very young Briel had a few steps behind them, but the coach said he was on a similar path. Since he started working with her a few years ago, she had developed quickly and landed all triple jumps, but by the age of 12, it was Axel.
Strid had to leave Wichita early to prepare to fly to Brazil to celebrate his wedding. Before departure, he found Briel, who was in the link with his mother, gave her a long hug, and told her to enjoy the last few moment of her first national development camp. Next, a hug with Edward, the four veteran of the camp, came. Both said that they were excited to go home a few days later and train.
But Corie? The coach scaned the link of Corie.
“I couldn't find Corie,” Strid began to cry. “I couldn't find him, so I didn't hug him. He was playing with a friend somewhere in the link, but when he returned to Virginia, he hugged him. I thought it was okay. “
aftermath
In Fair Fax, the sense of loss is raw. The community, who knew Edward and his parents, began to absorb the impact of a 20 -mile airplane collision.
On Friday, an unopened potting soil bag was sitting at the foot of a large tree in the front yard of the Fairfax Edward family. Mr. Shu's silver Volkswagen Passat was parked on a private road. The decoration of the white snow is still hanging on several windows.
SONNY SAYARATH, MARIA CABANILLA and their two teenage children can see their Edward house. Since the airplane dropped CRASH, I have put flowers twice on my family pouch.
They saw Mao Zedong and Zhou a walk at the usual midnight and said they were always comforted. Edward said that although he could certainly have it, he never brag about his exercise results.
“Honestly, I talked more about my competitors and how he drave him to make him better than taking all of this credit,” said Sayarath. “In other words, he was that child, he was that child.”
Their daughter, Florentina, skated at the Fairfax Ice Arena, which was trained by Edward. She said a dead local skater photo was on display at the arena.
“It's definitely difficult because everyone who is there has grown,” she said.
Sayarath and Cabanilla said that in the mathematics class at CG Woodson High School, Edward's desks were empty on Friday.
The flowers were placed. The students were quiet. They just sat on a chair and headed positively. And they cried.
