Death
On September 8, 1995, Chang was found dead in her apartment on Rochester Avenue in Westwood, Los Angeles by her landlord. That she was found days after her death testifies to her seclusion. Her death certificate states that she died from cardiovascular disease. According to Chang's will, she was cremated without any memorial services and her ashes were released into the Pacific Ocean.
She willed all her possessions to Stephen Soong (宋淇) and his wife Mae Fong Soong (鄺文美) in Hong Kong, but they later died. Their daughter Elaine and son Roland inherited the estate of Chang's works. Roland, who writes the influential EastSouthWestNorth blog in Hong Kong, has spoken about her works.
Chang's brother, Zijing, died in 1997. Neither he nor his sister had any children, and the family has no descendants.
Read more about this topic: Eileen Chang
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“I don’t know much about death and the sorriest lesson I’ve learned is that words, my most trusted guardians against chaos, offer small comfort in the face of anyone’s dying.”
—Alison Hawthorne Deming (b. 1946)
“During these fits of absolute unconsciousness I drank, God only knows how often or how much. As a matter of course, my enemies referred the insanity to the drink rather than the drink to the insanity. I had indeed, nearly abandoned all hope of a permanent cure when I found one in the death of my wife.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“To die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly. Death freely chosen, death at the right time, brightly and cheerfully accomplished amid children and witnesses: then a real farewell is still possible, as the one who is taking leave is still there; also a real estimate of what one has wished, drawing the sum of one’s life—all in opposition to the wretched and revolting comedy that Christianity has made of the hour of death.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)