Although Mary Tsu died from cancer last February, her memory still lives on at the library at Oak View Elementary.
Painted on two walls of the library are murals of an idyllic garden. To those she left behind, the peace and beauty of the murals represent two qualities of their friend Mary.
"I think that mural hit it right on the nose. She always loved gardening," said Mary's husband, Peter Tsu of Fairfax.
To honor their former volunteer and library assistant, Oak View officials asked North Carolina-based Cammer's Creative Murals & Graphics to paint two murals on the walls near the entrance of the library, in remembrance of the woman who was involved with the school for 12 years.
She died at 51 from stomach cancer.
"Mary was just so energetic and so willing to do everything around the school," said Oak View librarian Gail Broussard.
Mary Tsu started volunteering at Oak View when her oldest son, Jonathan, now 18, started school there. One of Mary Tsu's favorite activities was to work on the school garden. She loved gardening so much that she even planted trees at nearby Robinson Secondary.
"She worked furiously for quite a few months with other people to build that up," said Peter Tsu of the garden at Robinson.
The mural, which was completed over this past Labor Day weekend, shows two garden scenes with a path and Mary Tsu's hat in one mural, and a pond with swans in the other mural.
"She spent so much time down here [in the library] and in the garden," said school counselor Christy McSorley. "We felt that we wanted to recognize all of her time here."
Even though her sons had finished their time at Oak View, Mary Tsu still wanted to contribute to the school.
"Her husband said this is the one thing she really wanted to do, work at the school," said Oak View principal Greg Lock.
Yet, even though she spent a lot of time at Oak View, she also volunteered for other community activities. She helped out with the swim team and with the Boy Scouts and was a block captain for the neighborhood.
Friend Debbie Hoak had met Mary Tsu when their children were both in kindergarten at Oak View. Hoak said that when no one wanted to assume the leadership for the Cub Scouts, Mary Tsu volunteered. As the Cub Scouts progressed into Boy Scouts, Mary Tsu helped the boys complete their badges.
"She took over the den when no one wanted to do it, and she really helped the boys all the way through," said Hoak. "If she hadn't done it, the den would've fallen apart."
That determination is what friends remember of Mary Tsu.
"She saw what needed to be done, and she did it," said Broussard.
EVEN PETER TSU, her husband of 21 years, wasn't immune to her determination. Even though the cancer was at its advancing stages and he was busy nursing her, she insisted that her husband complete his projects. One project was to create a drawing memorializing the victims of the USS Cole, which was presented during the ceremony celebrating its return to the fleet in April.
"She pushed me very hard to go downstairs and finish this drawing," said Peter Tsu, an engineer and architect by training. "I think she deserved a lot of credit for this drawing. I got the accolades, but the credit goes to her."
Mary Tsu also made her husband go to Hawaii last December for the premiere of his other project, a Discovery Channel documentary about Pearl Harbor. He served as a technical consultant.
"She wanted me to go because she knew I put a lot of time on it," Peter Tsu said.
At her funeral, Peter Tsu said the church was filled with neighbors and people from all over the community. When they read her high-school yearbook during the ceremony, it said that Mary Tsu easily encouraged people to get things done.
"She was always open to that, always open to giving," Hoak said.