 The eldest daughter of Dr. Edward Hua Ngak Lee (李華岳) and Mrs. Lee Kwok Ming Fong (李郭明鳳), Mary Rose was born in Swatow (Shantou 汕頭), China, on 7th October, 1931. Her father belonged to a large extended family in Swatow, a mercantile city on the south China coast, while her mother's family hailed originally from Ningpo (Ningbo 寧波) near Shanghai.
In addition to having two younger sisters Vera (Lee Wong) and Joyce (Lee Jones), Mary Rose grew up in the company of a large number of cousins who lived under the same roof. She attended school in Swatow and graduated first from the Morning Star School (晨星書院), a Catholic Christian missionary school run by nuns. Afterwards, she moved with her parents to Hong Kong where her father attended the University of Hong Kong. He obtained his degree and certificate for medical registration from its Faculty of Medicine on 28th December, 1936. He had also been a tennis champion and captain of the team representing China for the Davis Cup. Later Dr. Lee journeyed to the United Kingdom for further medical studies, leaving her mother with the children in Hong Kong. He died in a plane crash near Colombo on his return trip.
Mary Rose spent the early part of the war years (1937-45) in Hong Kong but with the Japanese occupation of the territory (1941-45) moved back to mainland China on account of food scarcities in the Colony. She recalled how her own mother had had to pawn precious jewelry just to buy a bowl of noodles for her during this time of severe privations. After the war ended and before the Communist takeover of China in 1949, she returned to Hong Kong with her mother where she completed her secondary school education, graduating from Saint Stephen's Girls' College. She later attended the University of Hong Kong and earned a Bachelor's degree in English Literature in 1955.
 Nominated for a fellowship to study library science in the United Kingdom after her graduation, she chose to stay in Hong Kong and married Collin Lim (林光亮) on 25th August, 1955, at Saint Andrew's Church on Nathan Road in Kowloon. Collin's family also came from Swatow and the two met while they were in university (where he completed a one-year course); Collin's youngest sister Elvera (林光嬋) was in the same university graduating class as Mary Rose.
Around that time, Mary Rose joined the staff of the Diocesan Girls' School (拔萃女校) where she first taught in the Junior School and later in the Senior School. Her career at DGS coincided with the long tenure from 1953-85 of Headmistress Dr. Catherine Joyce Symons, C.B.E., who became her friend and mentor. While at the school, Mary Rose made many lifelong friends both among fellow teachers and students.
After spending the first several years of their married life at his family home on Cornwall Street in Kowloon Tong, the young couple moved to a flat on Argyle Street where they raised four children: Ulysses (林理思), Collin Jr.(林理智), Richard (林理祺) and Jeanne (林如瓊).
In addition to managing a household and a teaching career, Mary Rose also assisted Collin in the sociable aspects of his business enterprises. Collin first made a splash as a young fashion designer of embroidered evening wear (label: Colinda) that once dressed Princess Anne; he even designed and marketed a line of evening wear under the "Mary Rose" label. Collin later moved into clothing, toy and electronics manufacturing (Collin Lim Limited 瓊林有限公司). He was active in various business and charitable associations and served at one time as the President of the Rotary Club of Kowloon West (九龍西區扶輪社) and a Director of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals (東華三院).
Throughout her life, Mary Rose enjoyed a number of interests and hobbies which she was happy to impart to and share with others, including her children and grandchildren. Above all, she was an avid reader who, in her later life, favored contemporary Chinese novels. She was also greatly talented in arts and crafts. Besides cultivating a lifelong love of needlework, beading, and the making of jewelry, in which she greatly excelled, she also refined her beautiful calligraphy hand and developed an accomplished Chinese watercolor painting style. However busy she was in life and work over the past several decades, Mary Rose remarkably still managed to find a way to express her distinctive personality in an individual and artistic way.
Collin Lim died of lung cancer in 1981 after unsuccessful treatment at the Stanford University Medical Center and was buried at the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California. By that time, the family has begun to emigrate to the Bay Area in anticipation of the handover of the British Crown Colony to the People's Republic of China in 1997. Mary Rose herself left Hong Kong in the late 80s and settled first in Oakland and then in San Francisco where she lived for the last decade and a half of her life. During this time, she continued to make new friends while faithfully keeping the ones that she made over the years.
 In 1992, she became a grandmother with the birth of Livia, daughter of Ulysses and Julia. She took to the role with immense pleasure and doted on Livia and her two younger sisters Cordelia and Octavia.
In the last decade, she has had to cope with pain from various ailments. Weakness of the hips, which necessitated two replacements, and prolapsed discs impaired her physical mobility but not her joy in living. Most recently, coronary disease took an increasing toll and even expert medical interventions finally proved incapable of prolonging her life any further.
In her typically quiet and unpreposessing manner, Mary Rose demonstrated courage and endurance that both bewildered and impressed those around her. Numerous doctors and nurses have commented to family members how much they admired her cheerful and indomitable spirit in the face of suffering. "She is one brave lady" has been a constant refrain.
Peaceful and surrounded by family, Mary Rose passed away due to complications from endovascular surgery at the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center on 15th July, 2006. She has lived for 74 years and 9 months.
Beloved wife of the late Collin Lim, cherished mother of Ulysses (Julia), Collin Jr., Richard, and Jeanne, and adored grandmother of Livia, Cordelia, and Octavia, Mary Rose will be greatly missed by all who have been touched by her loving presence.
Requiescat in pace
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