Memorial Service Held for Chinese Victim of the Boston Marathon Bombing

On Monday, there was a gathering of mourners, family and friends at the Boston University to remember Lu Lingzi, who was described as happy young woman that always worked hard in school, played the piano, loved baking, dreamt of romance and a happy family life.

Lu Lingzi, a gifted mathematician who loved Boston, music and American ice cream, was one of the three victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. She was supposed to turn 24 in August, before her life was taken cruelly.

 

Her roommate, Jing Li described their friendship at the memorial with a heavy heart. They met just over a year ago on an online chat group, QQ. Lu, an indigene of Shenyang, and Jing, from Qingdao, were each looking for a roommate. It was Lu that first reached out to her. The message she received that day was in the same font and colour she used. It felt like a promising sign.

Last fall, they had a meeting, and over the weeks, they spent time together getting to know what they had in common. Funny enough, they discovered that they loved the piano, played the guzheng (a Chinese traditional instrument), had the same height (5’4’’) and were the only children of their parents.

They loved to experiment with new things in their little kitchen, even though neither knew much about cooking. They loved comparing notes about their frenetic schedules.

 
Although Lu was not religious, she would accompany Jing on a Christian retreat to New Hampshire where they did a lot of fun things together. Sometimes, they would head to the Park Street Church, where Lu once volunteered to make dumplings for a celebration honouring the Chinese New Year.

 

Jing once told her family all about Lu, describing her as a sister. Her parents replied, ‘you are sisters. You support each other and take care of each other.’

 
On that sad day, Jing and Lu were sharing breakfast and chatting about what they would do that day, as they always did. Lu, who had taken a major exam the previous weekend, was looking forward to a day off and considering going to the Boston Marathon. Jing needed to spend the day at Mugar Memorial Library to study for a Tuesday exam. She never knew that her good-bye to Lu before 9am would be her last.

At 8pm, Jing returned to the apartment and was surprised that Lu had not returned. Lu’s phone was unreachable and Jing texted her to come back early as it wasn’t safe.

At midnight, still no sign of Lu. Jing got apprehensive and began emailing friends, tweeting on Twitter to ask if anyone has seen Lu. A friend replied that a Bu student was injured in the Marathon bombings, but the student was later identified as Danling Zhou.

Thinking that Lu was sitting at her friend Danling’s bedside, she reported to Boston University Police on Tuesday morning that her roommate was missing. No one had any idea where Lu was.

Melissa Holt, an assistant professor of counselling psychology at a School of Education, went over to Jing’s apartment to keep her company after learning of her distress. Then, on Tuesday night, Jing received a call from the BU Chinese Students Association, saying that a female BU student was at Boston Medical Center.

Holt, along with Jing and several friends headed for BMC, where they waited in a conference room, joined subsequently by Lu’s aunt and uncle from Rhode Island as well as Scott Solberg, a SED associate dean for research and a professor of counselling.

After waiting for hours, Jing called BUPD again for an update. Then the news came: Lu was in the coroner’s office. At first, she didn’t understand what he meant. Then he repeated himself: ‘your roommate passed away from the Marathon bombing Monday.’

 
Jing has lost memories of the rest of the week. She received several calls from family and messages from families and friends, spent some time at her pastor’s house, attended Thursday’s interfaith service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, where she listened to Lu’s eulogy by President Barack Obama, and received a hug from Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.

She remembered Lu as someone who was afraid of mice and regularly burned her breakfast, and said they sometimes commiserated that with their big academic responsibilities, they were ‘too busy to go out and meet nice boys.’