Sokhan Y Memorial Fund

It is with a heavy heart to inform you of the passing of our one-of-kind amazing, beloved matriarch Sokhan Y on November 7 surrounded by her family.

Our mother, Sokhan Y endured challenges in her lifetime that most people would have given up- but not her. She was a warrior in every sense of the word. The second youngest of 13 children, Sokhan grew up working as a farmer in countryside northern Cambodia before becoming a hairstylist at 15 until her marriage at 18 to Chanthan Y, a school principal in 1968. She was also a seamstress, cook, and nanny.

In 1975, the communist Cambodia regime forced my parent apart- my father to be a soldier in the war, leaving my mother alone to raise their 5 young children. Sokhan, along with her elderly mother and five young children forced to leave their home to endure four years of unimaginable hardships and atrocities in the Khmer Rouge genocide camps. With mom’s tenacity and determination, our entire family beat the odds and survived when most did not. In 1979, after the war was over, she was reunited with my father in a refugee camp in Thailand. Their undying love truly beats all odds.

In 1981, our family emigrated to the United States under the sponsorship of First Methodist Church in Paris, TX and my parents worked as janitors in the local hospital. After 3 years they moved to California and became part of a flourishing Cambodian immigrant community in Stockton, CA. Mom was a migrant farm worker in the (with the whole family). She also turned our little apartment into a barber shop for the next 30 years- literally making her community beautiful. Countless smiles left her haircut chair feeling and looking better than when they came in because of her. On the weekends, mom and dad can be seen at the temple they helped create- helping and leading the community with ceremonies, weddings and funeral rituals. Any time she can, she would help- anyone. Sokhan Y is fiercely relentless and selfless, with the biggest heart. Her lasting legacy will live on in our family and her community family she built.

She is survived by her 6 children, 13 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren. She is preceded in death by her husband of 55 years Chanthan (passed away two years ago this month), her late mother Mik Nuon and late father Chun Prom.

We are forever thankful and blessed to call her our mother (Mai), grandmother (yai), and great grandmother (yai thuot).

Please join us in honoring her at her memorial service:

-November 12 at 5pm- 7th Day prayer at Wat Dharmararam temple 3732 Carpenter Rd, Stockton, CA 95215

-November 13 at 8am- Monk offering Prayer at Wat Dharmararam temple

-November 26

8am- 1:30pm Buddhist chanting and memorial service at Wat Dharmararam

2pm-4pm Buddhist chanting and cremation at Park View Cemetery 3661 French Camp Rd, Manteca, CA 95336

Thank you,

Callyan Y and Family