Phoenix Rising: A Memoir

By Gloria Chou

Born in Tsingtao (now Qingdao) in 1931 in the waning days of Imperialist China, Gloria Chou was the youngest of three daughters in an educated middle-class Protestant family. Her early childhood was spent under the Japanese Occupation of her home province of Shandong. Educated both at home and in Catholic schools, Gloria became enamored of the Catholic Church with its beauty and rituals and the example of a life of prayer and contemplation. In 1948 Gloria seized an opportunity to leave for American just ahead of the Communist takeover of China. She left her widowed mother, her home, and her country to enter an American convent. After 30 years as School Sister of Saint Francis, during which she taught school and earned master's degrees in both science and pastoral counseling, Gloria celebrated the freedom encouraged by Pope John XXIII and Vatican II. She asked for dispensation from her vows in 1980.On her first return trip to Qingdao, in 1981, Gloria was reunited with the one of her sisters who had remained in China to care for their mother. The sister and her husband, both of whom had suffered under the Communists and especially during the Cultural Revolution, asked for her help in coming to America. Although she was recently laicized and had neither money nor experience in supporting herself, Gloria agreed to sponsor them. After a series of low-wage jobs, she accepted a position teaching and counseling at the International School of the Sacred Heart in Japan, where she spent 12 years and grew to love the country that had been the enemy of her childhood.Gloria's inquiring mind and contemplative nature ultimately brought her to the Chinook Learning Center on the grounds of the Whidbey Institute in Washington State, where she continued to write, live in harmony with nature, and explore what it means to be a fully realized human. She continues to reside on Whidbey Island, where she recently met a lifelong goal of writing this memoir.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1508552746
• ISBN13: 9781508552741
• Release Date: February 2015
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.3" x 6.0"