Hongkang "Hanna" Lei

雷宏康，Hongkang (Hanna) Lei, our dearest mother, passed away at home at 8:30 a.m. on Christmas Day, December 25, 2024. 

Hanna was born on August 14, 1926, into an intellectual family in Changsha, Hunan Province, People’s Republic of China. She graduated from the Department of Mathematics & Physics at Guangxi University in 1951 with a Bachelor of Science degree. She then taught Physics, Mathematics, and Engineering Mechanics for several years at Xiangya Medical College (湘雅医学院) and Hunan Industrial Engineering School （湖南工业工程学院）in Changsha, Hunan.

Following her marriage to Rongguang Jiang (江容广), she moved to Hengyang, China, where she switched to chemical engineering and specialized in small-scale nitrogen fertilizer chemical factory designs. She retired in 1984 as an engineer at the Hengyang Standard Bureau. 

She always thought that she was only proficient in mathematics, physics, and chemistry, not literature or arts. However, in 1994, she began dabbling in music, poetry, creative writing, painting, and calligraphy through Hengyang Senior University. Once she got started, she never stopped, creating impromptu works even at the age of 95, including modern poems, classical poetry, and prose.

Over more than twenty years, she wrote over 120 poems and published a poetry collection, Frosted Leaves Chant (《霜叶颂》) in 2009. She also wrote nearly 200 pieces of essays, travel notes, book reviews, and other writings, with more than forty articles about her experiences in the United States published in newspapers and magazines in China. In 2016, she published the first volume of her essay collection, Picking Up Pearls of Time Volume I (《流光拾穗》第一册)。 Picking Up Pearls of Time（《流光拾穗》）Volume 2 and 3 are in the process of to be published. Additionally, she created more than 200 pieces of calligraphy and Chinese brush painting.

Since 2000, she had lived in the United States, residing in St. Louis, Missouri, for 20 years. In 2021, she moved to Madison, Wisconsin, to live with his eldest daughter Sue Jiang.

Hanna was preceded in death by her husband Rongguang Jiang. Survivors include her daughters, Yishu (Sue) Jiang, Ling Thumin, and her son William Jiang. She has four grandchildren, Laurie Thumin, daughter of Ling Thumin, Shiwen (Zach) Mo, son of Yishu Jiang, Cosmo Jiang, son of William Jiang, and Cordelia Jiang, daughter of William Jiang. Two great grandchildren, Rex Ruisi Jiang, son of Cosmo Jiang, and Charles Orpheus Mo-Fairbanks , son of Shiwen Mo. 

Private Family Wake will be held 6:00 p.m. Friday, December 27, 2024, at Cress Funeral Services at 3610 Speedway Rd, Madison WI 53705. 

Memorial Services will be at 2:00 pm, Saturday, December 28, 2024, at Cress Funeral Services at 3610 Speedway Rd, Madison WI 53705. 

The service will be live streamed. Please click on the following link: 

https://event.forgetmenotceremonies.com/ceremony?c=d8c5b0f3-908c-435d-afbc-277a2447f5c0

We welcome you to share your memories here on Hanna's tribute wall.

Cress Funeral & Cremation Service

3610 Speedway Road Madison

(608) 238-3434