Rose Mai Tak Chin Brosseau died at Whidbey General Hospital, Nov. 23, 2008, at the age of 81.
She was born in Singapore on Aug. 15, 1927, the only child of Chin Tan Ching, an accountant, and Wong Len Yin, a woman of many talents including cooking, knitting and languages.
In 1932 Len Yin had tutored the adventurer and author Richard Halliburton in the local languages before his visit to Sumatra and Dutch Borneo. In 1942, the Chin family became refugees from World War II by dressing as peasants and traveling 200 miles by foot and a coolie-pulled junk to Lolung, China.
For the first year they lived with four other families (19 children altogether) in one three-story sod house. While there, Rose had to redo junior high in Chinese, having attended English school most of her life. Having to redo her schooling several times in different languages, Rose never graduated from high school.
In 1947, Rose sailed to the United States, docking in San Francisco, Calif. She received a bachelor’s degree from Union College in Lincoln, Neb. While there she successfully argued that English was her foreign language and that she should therefore be exempt from additional foreign language requirements.
She studied nursing, completing her studies at the University of Washington’s master’s program. Rose worked as a nurse at Children’s Orthopedic Hospital in Seattle, retiring as a supervisor in 1970.
In 1958 Rose met George Mahlon Brosseau on a blind date in Seattle. Six months later they married. In 1960, the couple boarded the first of four freighters for a seven-month trip around the world. They had daughter Mai Lon Verle in 1962.
Although her mother could copy any knitted object from sight, Rose did not inherit this skill. She did, however, inherit her talent for cooking. She came to this country not really knowing how to cook, her mother having always done it. But she quickly picked it up and was soon teaching Chinese cooking classes at the House of Rice in Seattle’s University District.
Rose and Mahlon bought a lot at Useless Bay in 1965, where they later built a home. Upon her retirement from Children’s Hospital in 1970, they moved to Whidbey Island and the unfinished house. She didn’t seem to mind that it took more than 10 years for Mahlon to complete the house himself, working on it evenings and weekends.
For a time, Rose’s canine and walking group exercised along Shore Avenue wearing brightly colored T-shirts with the same name.
The Brosseaus opened the Six Persimmons Oriental Restaurant and Gift Shop in Coupeville on July Fourth weekend, 1970. She came home crying that first day as much from relief as exhaustion. The Six Persimmons offered a fixed price menu of multi-Asian origins. Although a few customers were upset that there were no fortune cookies (flat “unfortunate fortune cookies” were available in the gift shop) most customers were more than satisfied. Even now there is still a demand and a few frozen won tons in her freezer.
In the 1974 “A Poor Man’s Guide to Seattle Restaurants,” Rose said she was a “Free Soul” cook. She started teaching Chinese cooking at the Six Persimmons in 1971 and continued until 1996. Her well-known cooking classes at the Six Persimmons created groups, the Six Chins, and then Chin Tong or China Club, which for 30 years have continued to meet monthly and have a Chinese lunch and a program on China.
The Six Persimmons Restaurant was on Front Street for years before relocating to Grace Street. Rose and Mahlon were very active in the Coupeville community for 25 years and owned several properties together.
Throughout the 1980s, Rose and Mahlon hosted numerous Japanese exchange students, their “Japanese daughters.” They stayed in touch with many of them, even visiting Japan as guests of the Hino family in 1997.
Rose was tour director for many trips to Hong Kong, China and other Asian cities for groups of travelers from Whidbey Island interested in Asian culture.
Rose was a member of the American Association of University Women since 1997. She relished the lectures and intelligent discussions on subjects of science, politics and social issues. She also enjoyed her garden club, gourmet club, book club and lunch without Emily.
Rose was a gatherer of friends. She brought many people together from all walks of life at her and Mahlon’s homes on Useless Bay Beach and Holly Hill Lane for Mongolian barbecues, hot-pot dinners and holiday celebrations.
She will be greatly missed by all who were touched by her.
Rose was preceded in death by her parents, and by Mahlon on Oct. 7, 2008.
Rose is survived by her daughter Mai Lon, son-in-law Alex, granddaughters Morrigan and Deirdre Ross, granddaughter Sarah Tift and great-granddaughters Payton Brosseau, and Paige and Grace Tift.
A celebration of life will be held Jan. 24, coinciding with Chinese New Year.
Arrangements are entrusted to Visser’s Funeral Home, Langley.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the AAUW Scholarship fund, PO Box 1332, Coupeville, WA 98239, or to the Coupeville Community Commemorative Fund, PO Box 725, Coupeville, WA, 98239, toward a memorial bench.
