Sleepless in Saigon - 1st Day back in 31 years

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thursday, 11.00pm
10 feb 2005

i was 3 years old when we left 2 weeks before the fall of saigon in april 1975. my mom told me of running from building to building with bombs exploding in the near distance. she was trying to get our paperwork in order so we could leave as a family with my irish american father. he met her working as a vendor for the military providing all the provisions needed to maintain their bases. she worked in his office. they met, fell in love, had me, then along came my little brother. my father adopted my mother's first 2 children, who i only know as my brother + sister . he needed to get all of his children out of the country, and quickly. his company told him this was the last plane out...if he stayed they could not protect him. they left everything, including their house in saigon + the beach house in nha trang. they hastily packed + shipped boxes back to my uncle in new jersey. we fled to thailand where the security guards had to be bribed to allow my father + mother to take all 4 children to america...they said he was trying to smuggle out the older 2 children who were all vietnamese and could not be his. they turned their heads when shown the adoption papers but opened their hands more widely so he could understand "their language" better. he paid them, they pillaged my mother's luggage + jewerly, and then let us go.

freedom. that's what was really important. we made it out safely. mom, dad, my brothers, sister, and i settled into the jersey shore within a year of arriving to the states. mom quickly adjusted to the american culture studying to be a beautician, even though she would meet daily discrimination post vietnam war. (over here they call it the "american war.") she is living the american dream, taking a month-long vacation from her self-owned beauty parlor in the suburbs of new jersey. her first time back in 31 yrs too!

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