 Winnie suffered physical and mental abuse at the hands of her husband, losing many children along the way.Throughout her marriage, Winnie does many things behind the scenes that her husband takes credit for, and she likens her situation to a Chinese fable about a man who was horrible to his wife no matter how much she did for him, and yet still became known as "the Kitchen God".It was during the war that Winnie met Jimmy Louie, Pearl's father; He was a good husband, a good father, and a minister in the Chinese Baptist Church, but he died when Pearl was a teenager, a time when Pearl became very angry.