Alex's paternal grandmother bestowed the name Xie Hong long before Alex joined the family. With each pregnancy, Alexander Xie Hong was always the boy's name and his parents would scramble to name each new girl who came along. It was 12 years before Alex would claim his name.
In 1998, the family moved to Missoula, where Alex would spend the rest of his life. He attended school at Chief Charlo Elementary and Meadow Hill Middle School. He was preparing to enter high school in a couple of weeks. He would have attended Sentinel with his many friends.
Alex was not a joiner, but a free spirit who liked to pursue his own passions. He loved to collect pandas, skateboard, ride his bike and mostly he loved to play his guitars. He was self-taught and exceptionally talented. He would play those guitars until the rafters rattled and we begged him to turn down the amp. Alex spent this summer playing his guitar at the farmers market and Out to Lunch. Alex called his guitars his "kids."
He loved them and we fondly remember the very first time he saw his first guitar. His dad brought it home after work late one night, and Alex could not have been more excited. They sat on the couch together and his dad taught him some chords. From that moment on, he would play, morning, noon and night.
It seemed that everything came quickly and easily for Alex. He learned to ride a unicycle in minutes; he could juggle without even thinking about it; if he heard a song, he could pick out the notes and chords and play it. He was a wonder to us all.
One day, at age 4, he asked his mom to teach him to ride his bike without training wheels. She did the standard "hold the seat and run along" bit. Alex instantly saw the flaw in this plan and asked his mom to go in the house for a minute. When she came out just 10 minutes later, he was whizzing around in the street on two wheels. Before the day was over, he had taught two other neighbor kids to ride their bikes.
Alex knew his own mind and heart and was fiercely independent. He wasn't afraid to go against the grain or make a wave. He spoke his own truth without a care for what was popular opinion. He had the wicked sense of humor and would use it at will.
Alex was preceded in death by his paternal grandmother Lee Shui Wen of Hong Kong; paternal great-grandmother Leung Yee of Hong Kong; and maternal great-grandmothers Marie (Johnson) Marxer and Ellen "Nell" (Johnstone) Borgreen, both of Great Falls.
Survivors include his parents Ping Leung "Thom" and Jennie Pak of Missoula; sisters Katie (David) Rhodes of Oak Harbor, Wash., niece Danielle and nephew Richard, Sarah of Abingdon, Va., and Allison and Brittney of Missoula; grandparents Gary and Judy Marxer of Lewistown; maternal aunt Ellen (Terry) Miller and cousins Jared and Jake of Lewistown; maternal uncle Carl (Heather) Marxer and cousins Katie, Colton and Emily of Billings; paternal aunt Fung Yee "Teri" (Dick) Ellis of Great Falls; paternal aunt Yin Wah "Cecily" Pak (Tak Cheung "Edmond" Kwong) and cousins Chris and Eugenie Kwong of Port Coquitlam, British Columbia; paternal uncle Thomas "Ping Kwong" Pak of Hong Kong; and numerous extended family and many, many friends.
