RIP Dr. Wu Chengde

[Drunk Monk]

Dr. Wu is Master Grace Wu-Monnat's father. I know some of you know her. She's one of my closest friends in the wulin. What you may not know is she is part of a prominent martial dynasty. Her grandfather was GM Wang Ziping, a truly legendary figure of his generation. Her mom was Madame Wu Jurong, another titan in the field, and her dad, Dr. Wu was the Director of the Shanghai College of TCM, one of the most prominent TCM schools of all. Grace and her two sisters are all standout masters. I've had the privilege of spending time with the family, all except sister Helen, who I've never met (once Grace and Xiaoping kidnapped me and took me to lunch - we almost ended up at a breastaurant called Twin Peaks. Man, those TexASS tournaments were so cray). I met the good Doctor several times, and my strongest memory of him was having lunch together at the VIP table overlooking the tournament. 

Grace and I text each other every few weeks. The last time she texted me she said she was trying to see her dad more. I texted her this morning when I heard but I don't expect to hear back from her soon. She took her mom's death hard. I'm sure she's taking her dad's death hard too. 

He was the same age as my mom.

[Greg]

I knew. I didn't know the names. Are all years going to be like this from now on?

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

I’m sorry for her and your loss.
————————————————

Yes, G-Man, they are.

[cranefly]

Sorry to hear of this.

[Drunk Monk]

Well, today was all about Dr. Wu. I finished the memoriam last night but then Grace called me this morning. They did a viewing but aren't doing a funeral because Dr. Wu didn't want one. Students are wanting to send flowers but there's nowhere to send them so she and her sisters are asking them to donate to KFM. That sent me in a scramble to set up a place to receive donations. Unfortunately, our Foundation site is currently offline. Our IT has been shifting it to a new server and is debating about keeping it on wordpress (he really should because it's so simple). Patrick and I oversaw that site. Anyway, we had to sort how donations might be received, which took me all morning - mind you, I had to get back here to the Cruz amidst the Lightning complex fire fallout and pick up water in Scott's Valley on the way home, plus do some grocery shopping for my mom - but we finally got it all sorted. It got unduly complicated because our IT does that and our graphic guy is still learning KFM, but it's sorted. It'll go live as soon as Grace publishes his obituary, which will be soon.

[Greg]

Is there an English language version of Dr. Wu's story or do you think the obit will cover that?

What does the KFM foundation do with the money?

[Drunk Monk]

Is there an English language version of Dr. Wu's story or do you think the obit will cover that?

Not really. Our memoriams are just our direct experiences of the master and he was a quiet man so Gigi and I had little to say but that he was honorable. His wife was the super star. He was no slouch but not in the Wang Ziping bloodline. Check out Grace's cover story for a good overview - http://www.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/a...article=84

What does the KFM foundation do with the money?

Pay my retainer fee?

Actually, beyond general costs, it'll give me a budget to actually buy from freelancers again. Since the pandemic, I've run a few donated articles and some trades. KFM can certainly use the cash to defray the losses we took with the cancellation of TCEC and such. We pulled out of that early before things got too ugly, but we still lost like $10K.

[Greg]

Yikes. I thought it might be a charitable fund of some sorts to pay for those poor martial artists who break boards for food and such.

[Drunk Monk]

um yeah.

that's me now.

i'll break boards for food.

or whiskey. 

especially for cheese.

got cheese?

[Greg]

We are all out of night cheese. Sorry.

[Drunk Monk]