MARIETTA APARTMENTS BLOG

In the end, it wasn’t a robber’s bullet that would end Jung Ja Lee’s life. Even though she was shot and left paralyzed after her Marietta convenience store was held up, Lee continued to work hard and raise her family.

From the AJC:

In 1990, an armed robber burst into the Marietta convenience store Jung Ja Lee owned with her husband, Jae Chung Lee.

A bullet hit Mr. Lee in the chest and left him paralyzed. Mrs. Lee, a native of South Korea, was left to look after the Atlanta Road Grocery and her husband until his death in 1996. She kept running the store for years after that.

“She worked 12-plus-hour days six days a week, and on the seventh day, she didn’t rest. She took care of her home,” said her son, Justin Lee of Duluth.

Before the shooting, Mrs. Lee’s fortitude was already the stuff of family lore. When she took her husband to visit her family in South Korea, she lifted him on her back and carried him across a stream so his suit wouldn’t be dirty.

When he fell on hard times, she pawned her engagement ring so he could start his business again.

Mrs. Lee, 59, of Marietta died of a brain aneurysm Monday at WellStar Kennestone Hospital. The funeral is 11 a.m. today at Carmichael Funeral Home.