Xijuan Lu

Our beloved mother and grandmother, Xijuan Lu, 80 passed away peacefully on July 10, 2020 in Raleigh, North Carolina. She was born on April 4,1940 in the city of YiXing, JiangSu province in China to Mr. YongQing Lu and Mrs. FuBao Zhang.

Education and Career：

Xijuan graduated from a prestigious high school in China in 1958. She then went to the Nanjing Institute of Technology and joined the Food Industry Department as the official leader of her class. Later the department moved to Wuxi and she went with them. While there, she participated in a program to help give rural students an opportunity to graduate college. She spent countless hours tutoring students to help them pass their exams and succeed in school. All of her students graduated and were grateful for the time and effort she spent with them. Xijuan graduated with honors in 1963 with a BS in Microbiology and Nutrition.

After graduation, she went to work in Nanjing doing research for a research institute that focused on chemistry and forest byproducts. In her thirty years of work, she researched many different topics. Her most notable research was her work with edible fungi. She researched and documented various new varieties of edible fungi and their nutritional values. She also researched methods to mass produce these fungi to benefit both farmers and consumers. One method involves growing fungi from different tree leaves and tree barks. Her research made her a pioneer for the edible fungi industry in China, and thanks to her work, people can now safely grow and consume fungi. She published many scientific papers and was selected to be a board member for the Chinese Edible Fungi Association. As a member of the board, she continued to lead and pass on her knowledge and abilities to the next generation. She made great contributions to the establishment and development of the edible fungi industry in China. She retired in 1994 in order to visit her family in America.

Family and Retirement：

Xijuan met and fell in love with Haozhong Xu while they were both serving in the student council in high school. After graduating, they kept in touch and kindled their relationship through love letters. They finally got married on January 29, 1965 in Nanjing and later, welcomed their only child, a daughter, Hong Xu into the world in Qingdao. In 1994 after retiring, Xijuan came to America to visit her daughter and stayed for the birth of her granddaughter, Amy. She went back to China a few years later before returning to America in 2002 to enjoy her retirement alongside her husband, daughter and granddaughter.

Xijuan enjoyed her retirement in many ways. She shared her husband's passion for gardening and gourmet cooking, helped raise her granddaughter, exercised every day, knitted and did other crafts, made lots of friends, and she also shared their delicious food with friends and neighbors. She cherished the cruises and road trips that she went on with her family, visiting places like Alaska, Bermuda, Caribbean, and Hawaii. She was always cognizant of nutrition and would write down nutrition facts and lessons, which she shared with her friends and family. She lived a good and healthy lifestyle that kept her looking young and beautiful for her entire life.

She also participated in activities with the Evergreen Club, with her church, and other volunteering opportunities. At her church, she came to know and follow God’s teachings which she exemplified every day.

Legacy：

In the early years of her marriage, Xijuan worked a full time job while taking care of her husband who was ill with liver disease. Later in life, her husband showed her the same love and care when she developed Parkinson's disease. She fought hard to slow the progression of the disease by exercising, eating healthy, and attending physical therapy for her mobility. During this time, she still maintained her kind heart and cared for others as much as they cared for her. After a seven year battle with Parkinson's, she fell into a coma on January 20, 2020 and she had been in and out of hospitals for 5 months. In these months, she celebrated her 55th wedding anniversary, her 80th birthday, her granddaughter’s wedding, and her daughter’s birthday. Her wish was to pass with her husband so that neither would experience the sadness of losing the other. She passed peacefully on July 10, 2020 and is reunited with her husband in heaven.

Xijuan was very career-oriented and accomplished a lot in her lifetime. She cared for and loved all her friends and family and had a good heart. She was very social and enjoyed the company of other people. She liked animals and always loved the family pets. She is loved by her family and all of her friends.

Xijuan is survived by her daughter, Hong Xu Simpson and daughter's husband Al Ball, her granddaughter Amy Xu Zhang and granddaughter's husband Sawyer Harris, and in China by her oldest sister and her husband. She is preceded in death by her parents, her husband, her older brother and older sister.

A visitation will be held on Monday, July 13, 2020 from 6 - 8 pm at:

Brown-Wynne Funeral Home

300 Saint Mary's Street

Raleigh, NC 27605

Please bring a mask as we will be following protocol for ensuring everyone's safety from COVID-19. If you are having symptoms, please do not come.

Please also see the following link for her husband Mr. Haozhong Xu's obituary:

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/raleigh-nc/haozhong-xu-9234007

Arrangement by Brown-Wynne Funeral Home, 300 Saint Mary's Street, Raleigh.