"Then she asked a childhood friend, Ping Chong, to hold onto her records, including the death certificate of her husband, who had died of cancer three years earlier. Chong, reluctant to confront the prospect of her dear friend's death, refused at first. But Hang, who never shouted, pounded the table with a fist weakened by chemotherapy and yelled at Chong to take her request seriously."
"The two grew up in Laos and attended grade school together. Their families moved to Hong Kong when the women were teenagers, and Chong remembers cramming into each other's tiny apartment for dinner parties on the weekends. Called Eva by her friends, Hang was beautiful, smart and ambitious, Chong says. She won a scholarship to study graphic design in Tokyo at a time when it was rare for women to go to college. In 1992, she moved to the U.S. to marry."
Lai Hang received a terminal cancer prognosis in 2015 and immediately began procedures to buy a handgun, asking friend Ping Chong to hold her records and her late husband's death certificate. Chong initially resisted but relented after Hang, weakened by chemotherapy, pounded the table and demanded seriousness. Hang feared for the welfare of her 17-year-old son, George, after her death. Signs of disorder in Hang's home appeared months earlier, including broken household items Hang called accidents while Chong suspected something else. Hang and Chong shared a lifelong friendship and parallel immigrant life paths that included education and family-building in the United States.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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