Mina Wagman, pharmacist, wife, and mother, has died at 57
She and her family left South Korea in 1981 for a new beginning in the United States, and she valued determination, perseverance, and kindness for the rest of her life.
Mina Wagman, 57, of Villanova, a pharmacist, wife, and mother who left Seoul, South Korea, amid political and social unrest when she was 16 and helped her family make a new start in Philadelphia and Bucks County, died Friday, July 29, of cancer at Lankenau Medical Center.
Despite many challenges and uncertainties, Mrs. Wagman and her family forged a new life in the United States, and she went on to earn a degree in pharmacy at Temple University and become a model of hard work, dedication, and perseverance to her family and friends.
As a teenager, she learned English, worked at the family grocery store in North Philadelphia, and earned academic success at Harry S. Truman High School in Levittown. As an adult, she graduated from Temple, worked as a pharmacist for years, married, and raised a loving family in New Hampshire and Villanova.
“Never in our 30 years together did I hear anyone say a bad word about her,” said her husband, Joel Wagman. “She was curious, cheerful, and determined. Everywhere she went, people loved her and treated her as a good friend.”
After Temple, Mrs. Wagman completed her internship at Albert Einstein Medical Center and began her career in pharmacy. She met her husband, then an internal medicine resident, at Einstein, and they married in 1993, lived in New Hampshire and Villanova, and had daughter Nora and sons Nathan and Micah.
“She was different from anyone I had ever known before,” her husband said. “I immediately felt comfortable with her.”
Athletic and creative, Mrs. Wagman liked to ski and hike in the New England mountains, and renovated the family home in Villanova. She was funny, sweet, and elegant, and people remembered her kindness and respect.
She became an avid golfer, traveled extensively to Europe, Costa Rica, Croatia, and elsewhere, and made friends easily. “Mina was a loving spouse and mother, and a pleasure to know,” a friend wrote in an online tribute.
Born Feb. 12, 1965, Mina Jung Min Lee had three brothers and a happy childhood in Seoul. But her family relinquished their comfortable lifestyle and social standing when they left for America, and, recalling her own experiences, she valued diligence, tenacity, and relationships for the rest of her life.
She and her husband moved to New Hampshire to live and work for 16 years. But she yearned to return to her Philadelphia-area roots, and they came back in 2011 so she could renew the personal connections she had created nearly two decades earlier.
Mrs. Wagman embraced family life, told memorable stories of her youth, was an engaging hostess, and reveled in the bonds she developed with her children. “She was an excellent mother, old school, warm and fuzzy but firm,” her husband said.
Recently, as her illness progressed, Mrs. Wagman showed the same strength and resolve she had displayed throughout her life. “She was unflinchingly brave, never once complaining, and was always grateful for the opportunity to try and continue to live,” her husband said.
“She will always live in my heart.”
In addition to her husband and children, Mrs. Wagman is survived by a brother and other relatives. Two brothers died earlier.
Services were Monday, Aug. 1.
Donations in her name may be made to Fox Chase Cancer Center, 333 Cottman Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19111.