MANILA, Philippines - The Rain or Shine Elasto Painters are grieving the loss of team matriarch Margaret Yu – a driving force in all the championships won by the Asian Coating Inc. franchise from its PABL days.
Yu, mother of RoS co-team owner Raymond Yu and “Mommy Yu” to all the RoS players and as she’s known in the PBA circle, passed away a few hours before Christmas Eve at St. Luke’s Hospital in Taguig due to pneumonia. She was 71.
She’s a fixture behind the Rain or Shine bench until she fell ill.
“She already missed our past few games. She had a brain tumor that’s not cancerous, but it effected her motors especially as she’d undergone four major operations,” said Raymond.
“She’s already sick when we made the trades in the offseason (involving James Yap and Jay Washington). She couldn’t talk anymore. But when we told her of the trade, she smiled,” Raymond also said.
Mommy Yu, a Canton, China native married to former Philippine football training team member Yu An Kun of UST, was an active supporter of the E-Painters, visible in each RoS game.
Her remains lies in state at the Heritage Park in Taguig.