After four decades, a Vietnamese woman reunites with the daughter airlifted to America
Read the exclusive article at Reuters.
A mother has been searching for her Vietnamese-American daughter for 44 years. She has never given up. She sent her daughter to the USA for a better life, but the years apart have been torture.
The child's mother's name is Đẹp. She was born in 1949, she is from Thu Duc district, HCM city, Vietnam. In 1975, she sent her daughter who was 3 years old at that time to America in the Babylift campaign and has not heard from her since it has been 44 years. The mother remained single because she could not have a relationship when she missed her daughter.
She’s been looking for information on social media with the hope that by a miracle she could find her daughter. With tears in her eyes she said in 1968 she was working as a housekeeper for an American military base in Dong Nai.
Then because she spoke English they promoted her to be a radio operator. She met Joe her baby's father (born in 1945) who was a solder and fell in love with him. As a result, a lovely baby was born on January 5th 1972, named Phương Mai. After some months, Joe shipped back to the US after finishing his missions. Before leaving Vietnam, he promised that he would pick up her and their daughter. Sadly they lost touch and had no way of communicating.
April 1975 when Phương Mai turned 3 years old, Đẹp sent Mai to America in the Babylift campaign so Mai could have a better life
She said ‘’I recalled exactly, at 15:00 in the afternoon on 26th of April 1975, flights of Babylift took off with my 3-year-old girl along with hundreds of other children travelling a half of the Earth to America And this is the last time I saw my daughter. I am in 70s now, I just hope to see my beloved daughter once before I die. I have no time anymore as I’m getting older and older’’.
She feels terrible for sending her daughter on that flight she said in tears ‘’My action makes me repent until now as I made a decision too quickly without learning about where the flight would go…We were far apart when the kid just only 3, which makes me repent and painful, so I have to find out my kid at any cost. During 45 years, I don’t want to get married, just because I hope my daughter come back home Vietnam someday’’.
She has tried everything to contact Joe. After such determination, she found his address and wrote to him. The more she hoped, the more disappointed she was, the letter was sent back to Vietnam because the address didn’t exist and Joe, the baby's father died in 2011. The last glimmer of hope had died off but she was still has faith she will find her child.
Đẹp would like her story to be shared through social media so that she could soon be reunited with her daughter.
For information about Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Mai (born in 1972), please report to Ms. Nguyen Thi Dep (Ms. Mai's mother) at Tel: 0773719997, alley address 188/5/8 To Ngoc Van Street, Linh Dong Ward, Thu Duc district, HCMC (Pho Quang pagoda alley).
