Market owner remembers the experience near death 50 years ago – Asamnews

By Chinh Doan

(This story takes place in cooperation with the URL collective)

On the morning of April 30, 1975, 14 -year -old Loi van thought that she would die in Vietnam.

“I heard bombs explode,” said Loi.

The now 64-year-old Tulsa, Oklahoma, the residents of Oklahoma, reflects her trip to America and how she has made suffering.

She says she grew up an orphan without formal training and started working as a child who occupies for a family. She says her job saved her life.

During the fall of Saigon, she fled with the family for whom she worked on a boat and wore the baby she cared for. She says she doesn't know that they would end up in America. She just thought she temporarily fled from bombs and would return to Vietnam.

Everyone on the boat landed in refugee camps in the Philippines. Then she and the family, for whom she finally moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“It was very sad and lonely,” said Loi.

She said they were among the first Vietnamese immigrants in Tulsa, and about 12 lived in a house.

Later she met her husband Ut Le in 1976 and she had a daughter and a son.

In the 1980s after Ut lost his job, the couple opened their first international market called Nam Hai, named after their children.

“You have gone a lot since 1975 to come to America,” said her son Nam Le, who helps with the management of the family business. He says his parents taught him hard work.

Her first business was the size of a room. According to Loi, the variety of goods they originally offered, including pasta.

The supplies would be sold out quickly and prove to them that their services were necessary. Her business was so popular that Loi finally quit her job to concentrate on her family business.

“I was very happy and proud that our ancestors blessed us with luck,” said Loi.

You now have a building that serves as one of the largest shopping strips in Tulas Global District with 21^st And garnett. Their 50,000 square meter market is the cornerstone of the diverse area, surrounded by a nail supply business, a Vietnamese restaurant (owned by its in -laws) and many Latin companies.

“I don't have any training, but I'm working hard,” said Loi. “We are open seven days a week.”

She says that the success of the international market is due to the work morality of the Vietnamese heritage and the support of the community, in particular by Asian Americans. Think about the 50^TH The anniversary of the case of Saigon says Loi that she is glad that she fled. She said to stay in Vietnam, continued to mean. Her new life in America gave her more than she could ever have imagined.

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