Generous Goodbye Jean Wang Donates Proceeds From Final Two Nights Of Her Restaurant To Cheney Community
The Wang family ate dinner every night in their Cheney restaurant.
They rarely took vacations. Jean Wang was the restaurant’s only cook, and her teenage daughters Elena and Susan waited tables.
Even Shirley - the youngest of the family - helped sweep and clean beginning at age 7.
“I don’t think it would be an understatement to say that restaurant was the center of our lives,” said Shirley Wang, now 27 and a San Francisco lawyer.
After 20 years in business, the Chinese Garden restaurant closed its doors two weeks ago, but not before giving a big thank-you to the community that supported it.
Jean Wang donated proceeds from her final two nights of business to the Cheney Public Library and the Cheney Care Center, a nonprofit nursing home. The donation amounted to $850 for each facility.
“This was only a little bit of my heart,” Wang said. “I need to give back something to Cheney.”
Wang decided to close the restaurant after her husband Ben died of a stroke late last year. She will move to California to be with her three daughters.
Elena is now a dietician and Susan a chemist.
For both the Wangs and the community, it is the end of an era.
“I’m very sad,” said Jean Wang, 61. “My children said, ‘Mama, you should be happy. You should retire.’ But I love the restaurant. I love Cheney.”
The last two days at the restaurant were a celebration. People packed the place, mingling and eating cake and ice cream. All three daughters were on hand to wait tables.
“It was very joyous and festive,” said Shirley Wang. “It was like old times. My mom was very touched.”
The Wangs moved to Cheney from Taiwan more than two decades ago to give their daughters an opportunity for a better education. They got here with little money and spoke no English.
They opened their restaurant soon after arriving and stayed open seven days a week for the next 20 years, serving up steaming plates of sweet and sour chicken and fried prawns. Regular customers watched the three daughters grow up and move on to college and careers.
The Wangs watched many of their customers grow older, too, which is why Jean Wang chose to contribute to the Cheney Care Center.
Ben Wang’s love of education and children is why the other half will go to the library.
The money will be used to buy children’s materials promoting diversity.
“It was just kind of out of the blue,” said Sandy Pratt, west region manager for the county libraries. “It was a surprise. We’re very pleased.”
Jean Wang had planned to make the donations for several years, Shirley said.
“She really felt that was her way of saying goodbye,” she said.