…in Vietnam in 1972, a child born of a Vietnamese woman, Huong, and an American soldier, Rich.  Lena’s father, unaware of Houng’s pregnancy, had left Vietnam eight months prior to her birth in Da Nang.  All of the paperwork necessary for Huong to join Rich in the United States had been completed. They were both excited for the next phase of their journey in the US.  Rich left Vietnam on April 18, 1972.

During that week, the North Vietnamese communists swept into South Vietnam across the Demilitarized Zone with Soviet tanks in an offensive that would come to be known as the “Easter Offensive”.  These motivated, professional armies captured a number of the northern provinces in South Vietnam. The American military was all but gone from Vietnam by this time, the South Vietnamese were on their own.

The war would go on for another two long years, as the parallel Viet Cong governments began to assert themselves in villages throughout South Vietnam.  It was only a matter of time, and villagers who had a past connection to the United States military became increasingly uncertain about their future.  And soon, the finger-pointing in villages began, many of those fingers pointed directly at light-skinned, obviously Amerasian Children.

Lena was born into this cauldron of suspicion and hate.  Her mother burned all of her legal transit paperwork one afternoon in a small bowl in her room.  Huong feared being caught with documents that would seal her fate were she to be captured with them.  Leaving Lena with her mother Phai, Huong fled for the mountains above Quang Ngai, a remote place of family and safety.  Lena and Huong would be reunited some months later, but Lena’s life was by that time the dark existence of a recluse.  She was not allowed to go outside to play with other children, although at times her grandmother relented and rubbed black soot from the cooking fire on her face and arms to make her appear darker.

Often referred to as Bui Doi (dust of life), young Amerasians faced  an unpleasant and often cruel existence in the villages and cities of Vietnam.  Protected by her Grandfather, Dat, and Grandmother, Phai, Lena survived her early years, trying desperately to get out of Vietnam, first through the Orderly Departure Program, then (successfully) through the Amerasian (American) Recovery Act.  Lena’s mother was sent to a reeducation camp for 4 years from 1976-80 and was in and out of her life during this time.

Lena left Vietnam in 1988 at age 16 with her grandmother, Phai.  Her mother Huong would never see the United States.