Chi tiết Tiểu sử
Obituary
Today I am writing about the life of one Bui Huu ‘s Daughter in Law whom I called Mother.
One of my earliest vivid memories with my mother was that she made many beautiful school
caps for me and I regrettably kept losing them all one by one in the Kindergarten classroom.
Dieu Hong Ton was born in Hue on June 6 1936 and passed away peacefully in San Jose, CA on
Sept 4th 2024.
As a teenager growing up in Vietnam, she filed for a change in Birth certificate 2
years older in the birth year so she could enter the workforce to make money to support her
younger brother’s education.
She lost both of her parents at a young age. Her two elder brothers
sacrificed their lives for the Freedom movement against the French colony and the eldest sister
left home to the North. She lived with her three remaining siblings and her mother’s sister
whom I also called grandmother.
My father was a middle rank civilian officer for the first regime of the Republic of South
Vietnam and got a long delay in the promotion. The top presidential advisor, Mr Ngo Dinh Can
stated a denial that they want a devoted married man to be in charge of higher office. One day
my mother came to the local government office for a paper work application and my dad was in
charge of that department. He put her application request on hold so he got the opportunity to
continue seeing her. Her Aunt checked on my father’s background and family which he was
from. My Grandmother was pleased with Dad’s background and said that my deceased paternal
grandfather and my deceased maternal grandfather were friends. Grandma said that the Huu
Bui’s Family of An Ninh Thuong Hue is well known to have educated people. My Paternal
grandfather passed three Royal Examination and held a doctorate degree and became a high rank
officer in the Nguyen Royal Kingdom’s cabinet. In my grandaunt’s opinion, My mother’s future
children would be white collar workers with a good education background. Unfortunately, I did
not hold a Phd degree.
After my parents got married, my father got promoted and took a new position in highland
province Ban Me Thuot and she moved along with an infant son who I was. She became a
housewife and mother of two sons while my father was assigned to many different cities in just
a few years. When she was pregnant with the third child, a daughter, the First Regime of the
Republic of South Vietnam collapsed with a Military coup in November 1963. My father was
sent to prison with many other high ranking civilians. They did not put my father on trial as they
think that the family can bribe them with a lot of money in exchange for my Father’s freedom.
Should they know that my name’s meaning of Honest and my brother name of Integrity, they
would release my father. It was a dark time for my family as we had to stay together in a small
hut inside my paternal aunt ( Dad’s sister) villas and my mother traveled to the capital and spent all
saving money to help my father get released. All of that effort failed. My mother reminded me
that I kept asking my father whereabouts after that tragic event happened . As a 4 years old boy, I
still remembered that my mom brought me to the ferry to Thua Phu Prison across perfume river
for visiting my father,
In 1966 when American Army troops came to Vietnam for the intervention against the
communist, my mother got a golden opportunity to do laundry services for American GI in a
few different bases in Qui Nhon. While my father was in prison, She sent my 4 years old brother
and me to Da Nang under the care of my paternal grandmother and she brought my 2 years old
sister and my grand aunt to Qui Nhon. Thanks to her elder brother’s referral to the US
Commander, his Tennis partner, she had been launching the business with Americans from the
laundry service, tailor and barber shops in the local US Army bases and later more business
revenue came from souvenir merchandise and music recording cassette tapes to American GI
soldiers per order. My father was released in late 1966 without any charges and brought my
brother and me to reunite with my mom in Qui Nhon. Upon the release, my father got demoted
with a moderate salary due to the political revolution mentioned above. My mother became the
breadwinner for the family. It was actually a prosperous business for her in the next 9 years
living in Qui Nhon. She hired quite a few people and kept a good relationship with those former
workers over the years and offered them financial support after 1975. I told her that she already
paid the workers and should not be obligated to help them when the business venue was over
years ago. She said that those hard working workers contributed to our wealth and we should
owe them a big gratitude. She also helped out Bui’s family relatives under financial hardship in
Vietnam throughout her life and used to be one of the active fundraisers to help remodel Bui
Family Temple in An Ninh Thuong, Hue around 2006-2007.
After living under communism for a few years, She realized that her children would not have a
bright future in Vietnam. She put in all effort and found many attempts to send all of her sons out
of Vietnam as boat People. Fortunately, we all survived the sea escape . My parents and two
sisters left Vietnam and reunited with my two brothers in Denmark in 1987. 10 years later , my
parents came to live with us here in the US as my two sisters have already been living in the US .
I was greatly blessed to be with her for about 3.5 hours on my 65th Birthday. It is my last
encounter with her being alive.
Now she is leaving us in this world after a long battle of Alzheimer’s disease. My next brother
and sisters should get the full credit of giving care to her in the last 4 years of her life.
We are glad that she finally will reunite with my father who preceded her in death 11 years ago.
Her funeral will be on Sept 18, Mid Autumn Full day which turns out to be a very good day in
the Buddhist tradition.
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