05/10/2026
Nancy Nean Lee Chang
Her life was an improbable journey - a little girl who walked to school with her shoes in her hands to save them, who would go on to walk through doors not often opened to women like her. Nancy Nean Lee Chang (李哖) was born in Hualien, Taiwan, on December 18, 1937, in the last decade of Japanese colonial rule and the beginning of World War II. The eldest of four children, she had little recollection of her birth mother, who died during childbirth. Her birth father, unable to raise three young sons and a daughter on his own, "gave her away" around the age of five to a neighboring couple whose home she had frequented, and who later adopted her and raised her in Taipei. During a time of extreme scarcity, food was strictly rationed. She recalled a staple diet of "stretch porridge" made with rice and grated sweet potatoes, which were frequently rotten - the choice being to eat them or go hungry. These were the times that forged her resilience.
Life at home was not always peaceful. Her adoptive father, though he had great affection for her, struggled with alcoholism. His passing during her high school years was an indescribable loss - and yet she never forgot his constant encouragement to pursue education to the highest levels. It was a gift that would shape everything that followed.
Through perseverance and hard work, Nancy aced her high school entry exam and earned a coveted place at Taipei First Girls' High School (北一女中), and went on to graduate from National Taiwan University (國立臺灣大學), Taiwan's most prestigious institution of higher learning, with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration in 1962, among one of the first classes of women to do so. It was here that she met Mrs. Frances Yeh (李秀琴), a kindred spirit who would become a life long best friend. Together, they reached boldly in an era that offered women so much less - and never stopped.
Among their shared adventures, one stands out: Exhausted after a long day hiking and the bus nowhere in sight, the two did something no proper young woman in Taiwan would dare - they flagged down a man on a motorcycle and hitchhiked home. A bold decision. Perhaps not a fully considered one. With three on a bike barely large enough for two, and modesty demanding its own space, they perched on trembling legs, leaned away from the man, and clung to each other and the bike the entire way home. Too tired for the alternative. Neither of them ever forgot it.
After graduating, Nancy returned to Hualien as a teacher, where she reunited with her birth father and brothers. Her academic achievements inspired her youngest brother to pursue higher education - a path he may never have aspired to without her. She then returned to Taipei to build a career at the Central Trust of China (台灣中央信托局), finding in it not only work that fulfilled her, but some of the closest friendships of her life.
In 1967, Nancy married James Tsu-Kuang Chang (張子寬) in an arranged marriage customary of the time - a beginning that would quietly blossom, over 59 years, into a partnership of love and devotion. Together they built a warm and loving family, welcoming Jerry (張勝傑), Carol (張桂馨), and Gale (張桂齡). In 1982, out of love for her family, Nancy made perhaps the greatest sacrifice of her life - leaving behind a country she adored, a career in which she had flourished, and a circle of cherished friends - to move with her family to Long Island, New York. She arrived in a foreign land where the language was not yet hers, and she made it home, because her children were there.
The first years of rebuilding a life in the United States were difficult. She took whatever work was available to help her family financially, never too proud to do so - a testament to the resilience forged in her early life. She eventually found her footing at Avis Car Rental, where she was valued and stayed for sixteen years, retiring in 2001.
Above all, Nancy was a loving and devoted mother. Her greatest joy was her family. She delighted in her children's milestones - her pride written on her face in every photograph of graduations, weddings, and the important moments of their lives. That same love is there in photographs of her with her grandchildren - cradling Ethan as a newborn, planting a kiss on Victor, and holding Lena gently in her lap. In every one, the same joy. Nancy had a gift for making people feel cared for. It was never grand or showy - just a steady, consistent kindness that those around her felt deeply.
Her children each hold their own cherished memories of her. Jerry holds a memory from second grade, when joint issues left him unable to walk. Every day for a semester, Mom carried him to school on her back - never once letting him see the fear she also carried. In that act of strength, she gave him something more than a ride to school. She gave him the certainty that he was safe. Carol remembers how, as a little girl, she would occasionally tag along with Mom to work. Mom understood her daughter's desire to emulate her, and cleverly devised busy work to make her feel useful - stamping and cutting out labels by hand, Carol beaming with pride at the end of each day. Gale recalls how, as a young child in Taipei, Mom would come home during her lunch hour to have siesta together - reading poems in the quiet afternoon, including a favorite verse that compared summer showers to unruly schoolchildren who could not line up in a row. A small, silly poem - and the kind of memory that lasts a lifetime.
In small moments and large, she taught them who to be.
Nancy also had a poet's eye for beauty. She practiced ikebana - the Japanese art of flower arranging - with a patience and care that reflected everything she was. She was also a gifted cook. Carol, a famously picky eater as a child, would leave every meal made by the family cook unfinished - until Nancy cooked. Then she polished her plate every time.
In her final decade, illness gradually quieted Nancy's pace. Through it all, James never left her side - stepping into the role of devoted caretaker with the same quiet love she had shown her family all her life.
Nancy, a woman of grace, courage, and quiet strength, passed away peacefully on May 6, 2026, at the age of 88. She is survived by her beloved husband James; her son Jerry and his wife Christine, and their son Victor; her daughter Carol and her husband Tom, and their children Ethan and Lena; and her daughter Gale.
We love you, Mom - for your sacrifice, your grace, your kindness, and your unconditional love. You gave up a world so that we could have one.
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