....just kidding!
For a lot of you who know my mom, she's not ever really crazy about having her picture taken so I have decided that because today is her birthday, I will leave off her picture. Well, I might include a family picture, but I will at least leave off a solo pic!
Realization of a True Legacy
When I think of my mother's life, as most people probably would, I think of her life today. I see her with our family and the busy schedule she leads owning her own alteration shop. Since my perspective has been taken from what I have actually known about my mother over the past seventeen years I have existed, I tend to overlook my mother's past and the legacy she has created. I have just begun to see that through the examples of her struggles and her successes she will leave behind a legacy with the powerful message that anything is possible. I have always heard remnants of my mother's history and her journey to this country, but I never realized until recently how her life has drastically changed from the time she arrived in the United States to the present.
At the age of eighteen, my mother Tuyet had her entire life disrupted and forever changed. Along with my two uncles, aunt, and cousin, the five left their home country, Vietnam, and their family during the middle of the night in 1978 taking nothing with them except each other. After four days of traveling on a small fishing boat carrying fifty-four total passengers, the food and water supply had been used up. Fortunately, one day later the boat reached an American oil platform out in the China Sea. From here, Tuyet and her family transferred to another boat destined for a refugee camp in Malaysia. They stayed at this refugee camp for six months until an immigration organization sponsored the five to come to Kansas City. At an age just old enough to be considered an adult, Tuyet already had to make a difficult adjustment, not living in the familiar environment with her family and the home she knew so well. Now she would have to prepare herself for a future in which she did not know what lay ahead.
On Christmas Eve of 1978, my mother and her four relatives arrived in Los Angeles, California. After a night of sleep in the airport due to a flight delay, they all boarded another plane and headed to Kansas City where the temperatures lingered from a frigid fifteen to twenty degrees Fahrenheit. Since my mother's family had come from a country with a tropical climate, they were not prepared for the harsh, winter weather the Midwest had to offer. The five stepped off the plane wearing traditional Malaysian thong sandals and lightweight polyester short-sleeve shirts and pants. At the airport, the five immigrants learned that arrangements had been made for them to spend the night in a hotel, something they had never done before. Not knowing what awaited them the next day, they spent the first night in their new home, the United States.
As time passed, my mother found her first job at a local cap company. While earning the minimum wage of $2.90 an hour, she learned to operate a sewing machine. At the same time, she also began to take sewing lessons from her sister. Eventually, my mother progressed and landed a job at Gretchen's, a sewing company for business women's clothes, and there she worked with her sister. Over the next six years, Tuyet became an expert in the sewing business. Not only had she begun to build a career, but also during this time my mother and father were married and one year later I became their first born child. Our first home consisted of a small one-bedroom apartment located on the outskirts of downtown Kansas City in an area known as the “Northend” within walking distance from public housing. After a couple of years, my mother, father, and I left our small living quarters and moved to Liberty, a rural suburb where my parents bought their first house. Not too long after, my mother gave birth to my brother.
Thirteen years had passed since my mother had first arrived in this country with nothing and throughout these years she created a new life. From here, the story also became more familiar to me. After my mother decided to leave the job she held for six years, she found an opening at an upper-class clothing company. Next, she moved on to JP Todd's, a men's clothing store, where she learned to alter and tailor men's clothes. After a year passed at JP Todd's, Tuyet decided she wanted to be her own boss and open an alteration shop of her own. My mother came to this country with no possessions, but the clothes she wore. She did not know any English at the time yet now she had become fluent enough to consider opening her own business. Nine years have passed since she opened J.D.'s Alterations, named after her two children, Julie and Dominic. The success she has achieved from her first jobs to her current shop demonstrates how her work ethic has helped her to achieve such remarkable accomplishments.
When I look at my mother's life now, I see our family and I think of her small business. After talking to my mother though, I realize how drastically her life has changed over the last twenty-one years. When I hear the story of my mother and her family arriving in this country knowing not one person and beginning an entirely new life, I am left amazed. I know that someday I will be able to tell my own children about the woman I am lucky enough to call my mother. I look forward to telling my children of the sacrifices my mother made to give herself and her family a better life. I will also be able to tell about the great success she has achieved due to her industry, ingenuity, and perseverance. In addition to these exceptional qualities, she has done more. Because of her determination and character, she leaves me a message to share with our family's future generations. Anything is possible. At first I only looked at my mother's life in the present, but after hearing of her history and of her accomplishments, I am not only grateful that she is my mother, but also someone I can admire. I will be able to tell my own children about a true legacy.
