In the tiny kitchen of a Hong Kong high-rise apartment, the air was heavy with the aromas of a mother making her daughter's favorite childhood dishes.

It was the mid-autumn festival, a harvest celebration that brings families together for a cherished meal, and the last one they would share before the daughter took her family away to a land far from home.

"I'll miss her soy chicken," Asa Lai said as her mother cooked plate after plate of Cantonese cuisine.

"I'll miss my grandchildren," her mother, Ada, said after her daughter left the kitchen. "I'll miss my daughter. I don't want to see them go. I feel helpless."

She teared up. "I don't like to think about it. When I do, I cry."