[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 178 (Thursday, December 3, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2886]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              HONORING THE LIFE AND SERVICE OF SHIRLEY LAI

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO

                                of guam

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, December 3, 2009

  Ms. BORDALLO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to commend Shirley Lai for 
her lifetime of community service to the people of Guam. Shirley passed 
away on November 28, 2009. Shirley was born in a small village in 
Canton, China on September 5, 1931 and later moved with her parents and 
four siblings to Hong Kong.
  Shirley and her husband, Kwong Choy Lai, and her eight young 
children, moved to Guam in the late 1970s. Shirley started the Estimewa 
Restaurant, one of Guam's first restaurants specializing in Chinese 
cuisine. In 1983, after renting a vacant barbershop in an old hotel in 
Hagatna, the capital of Guam, she opened her first coffee shop with 
only two employees. Shirley blended flavors of American, Chinese, 
Filipino and local Chamorro cuisine, and a short time later Shirley's 
Coffee Shop quickly grew from a nine table coffee shop into a chain of 
six restaurants, four in Guam and two in Saipan.
  Throughout her life, Shirley continually gave back to her community. 
Just as she contributed much to the community of Guam, she taught her 
children to be generous and that success is best measured by the 
community's reciprocity in trust and respect. She and her family 
provided assistance to the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the 
Make-a-Wish Foundation as well as several sports leagues for children. 
She also assisted in disaster relief efforts during times of recovery 
in our region.
  Like many who knew her as a close friend and community leader, I will 
miss Shirley. My thoughts and prayers are with her sons and their 
families; her daughter and husband; her fifteen grandchildren; and her 
great granddaughter.

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