Family history, some notes
My maternal grandfather (b. 1925) left southern China, Guangdong region, at 15 with an elder brother to find work in Vietnam. Before his career in construction, he wrapped wontons. My maternal grandmother was born in Vietnam, but her parents emigrated from China. They left for the same reason: poverty.
My grandfather's first wife died young. He remarried with my grandmother. She was 17 and the condition of their arranged marriage was that he would financially support her brother's university education. My mom says my granduncle was a clever man, doing so well in his career that he'd travel by plane, which was rare at the time. He died at 35 because his plane exploded.
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My paternal grandparents were university-educated, even my grandmother. They fled China due to the war, losing a daughter in the chaos of it. In Vietnam, they ran a business in plastics, which they later continued in the United States. My dad, the youngest son, was born in Vietnam.
When my grandparents learned Saigon would be captured, they immediately secured passage for their sons to leave the country. My dad left a few days before April 30, living for a year in Thailand, then another year or two in Taiwan with a brother, who was already there studying abroad. He did not enjoy living in Taiwan, so when another brother had papers for the United States, he joined him.
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The North Vietnamese entered Saigon when my mother was 17.
A friend asked her to leave with him. She told my grandmother about the opportunity, and my grandmother said to give the seat to her younger brother instead, so my mother did. But the boat didn't make it out, and my uncle was imprisoned.
My mother tried to leave again at 20 on a ship. My grandmother stayed behind for her son. As the ship waited in international waters, no country would accept it. There were too many refugees; she says there were thousands. The ship returned to Vietnam, but the country would not take them back. Finally, they disembarked on an island off the coast and stayed there for a few months. She was on the ship for 40 days, starving, and grateful for a bowl of watery porridge. She says many of the very young and very old did not survive.
The government had taken everything from those who left. But because my grandmother stayed behind, my mother had a home to return to. Her eldest brother had successfully arrived at Los Angeles on a smaller boat. He immediately applied to bring his family over and mailed home. The process took eight months, and she arrived in the Unites States at 22. She says if the events had not unfolded as they did, they would have lost their home and never received the papers; they may not have all made it out.
She enjoyed playing the guitar, but had to leave it behind.