Person

Mah, Marion Laura

• Mah, Mary Laura
• Mah, Laura
• Wong, Mary Laura
• Wong, Laura
• Marion Laura Mah Yick

1923-2016

Marion Laura MAH Yick (known as Mary "Laura" MAH and Mary Laura WONG after marriage) was born in Salmon Arm on November 12, 1923. She was the second daughter of MAH Tin Yick who owned and operated a hand laundry business.

Shortly after Laura’s birth, her mother died. Her father, unable to find another wife due to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act, was convinced that the best thing to do was to place both Laura and her older sister Helen into the care of the Oriental Home and School in Victoria. Despite the distance, he maintained a relationship with his daughters throughout their lives.

During WWII, Laura wanted to join the war effort. She dreamed of joining the Air Force, but when she discovered it was not taking any more women, Laura did not hesitate to sign up with the Army. She enlisted with the Canadian Women’s Army Corps.

With her round, baby face, Laura did not look old enough to enlist. When she tried to join, the recruiting officer said “You’re too young, you’re not 18.”

Laura shot back “I’ll be back tomorrow with my birth certificate,” but the officer still found it hard to believe that she was 19 years old.

Laura was sent to Kitchener, Ontario for basic training. Later she took some clerical courses. She was so good, that a staff sergeant asked if Laura would be willing to become a teacher for new recruits. She declined and later found herself back in Vancouver where she was employed as a teletype keyboard operator stationed out of the old Hotel Vancouver.

Years later, Laura recalled she felt no discrimination from her peers and had many good memories of her time in service. “Staying at the Hotel Vancouver, they had a beautiful rooftop garden there. So sometimes in the afternoon before we had to go to work, we would sunbathe out on the roof garden.”

After the war, in 1947, Laura was chosen to be among the first Chinese Canadians to receive their citizenship.

She married Larry Wong, also a war veteran and they had one daughter: Teresa (later known as Teresa Bradford after marriage).

Her daughter described what happen when Laura announced to her employer that she was getting married. “My mom worked as a teletypist after she left the military for Trans Canada Airlines (Air Canada). She had to leave the company when she told them that she was getting married. At that time, any woman who had plans to get married was asked to resign from their job.”

Laura was not out of the workforce for very long. As Teresa recalls “she went back to work in 1959, when I was four years old. She worked for several different stock brokerage companies as a teletypist. In the mid 1970s, my mom applied for a job as an educational assistant working for the Toronto Board of Education. She worked in three different public schools and worked with the Kindergarten classes. She loved her job and so enjoyed working with the children. She retired at 65.”

On March 22, 2016, Laura passed away in Toronto in her 93rd year.

Mah, Tin Yick ([1867]-1948)

Mah, Helen (1918-1976)

Wong, Larry George (1923-2006)

Description supplied by collector/curator