Mrs. Ann’s Story

1966

Ann threw in her lot with the Americans as soon as she left high school in 1966. She clerked for the U.S. Agency for International Development and soon married a South Vietnamese Army officer. She even gave birth to her first son on an American Huey helicopter sent to take her to the hospital.

Eight years after their wedding, Ann’s husband died suddenly of an infection, leaving her with two boys and a baby girl to raise. At first, she felt lucky to have a well-paid embassy job. The fall of Saigon changed everyone’s future.

April 1975

As North Vietnamese forces advanced, Ann worried what would happen if the North punished those who had worked for the Americans. Her boss secured four seats for Ann and her three children on an evacuation flight. She was also responsible for her parents. On the day of the flight, she took the children to the airport, saw how many people were getting through, and hoped she might get seats for her parents too.

“I asked the kids, ‘Should I go home and gather your grandparents or just go?’ Tony replied, ‘Let’s go, Mom.’ But I saw how simple it was for people to get through, so I rushed home to gather my parents.”

In Vietnamese custom, it was Ann’s duty to take care of her parents — just as much as it was to tend to her children. Torn between those obligations, she sent Tony and Tim without her, thinking she would catch up the next day.

“When I returned to the embassy, the crowds trying to enter were tremendous. There was no way to get in; my father tried to climb over the wall, but he couldn’t. I went to the docks to inquire about a boat, but they wanted $5,000 and I didn’t have any money. I came home and told my father that there was no way out. The whole house cried.”

Punished for her service to the Americans, Ann spent 18 months in a re-education camp. After her release, she supported herself, her daughter Mimi, and her parents with little more than her wits. In the 1980s, the U.S.-led trade embargo devastated Vietnam’s economy. Ann’s one asset — a refrigerator purchased at the American PX — became a way to earn pennies a day selling ice on the street. Communications with the United States were cut off. She had no way to know that Tony and Tim were being raised by a distant relative in California, who feared contact with Vietnam.

“I had no word from my children. I gave letters to friends going to France and Norway to send. But there was no answer.”

Ann Tours, and a phone call

In the late 1980s, as Vietnam moved toward a market economy, Ann opened a travel agency — with slim hopes of meeting someone who could help her find her sons. In 1991, a few years after Ann Tours opened its doors, that is exactly what happened.

“A Vietnamese-American businessman who had taken a trip through my mother’s travel agency happened to live in San Jose, California. When he got home, he opened the phone book and found my name. My last name is very unique for a Vietnamese, so he called me and asked if I had a mother in Vietnam.”

The businessman brought Ann a photograph of her two sons. Sixteen years after she put them on the plane, she picked up the phone.

“It was four o’clock in the morning. I was staying at the San Jose State University dorms, and I got a phone call. The voice at the other end said, ‘This is your mother speaking. Do you miss me? Do you remember me?’ And she cried, and I would never forget that day.”

Tony and Tim visited their mother and sister in 1992. The next year they returned to live with Ann and help run the travel business. Tim later went back to California. Tony stayed.

“In 1975, I was part of a great exodus from Vietnam. In 1993, I was one of the first to return. Life here hasn’t always been easy; I’ve had to relearn my culture and relearn my language. But every year I’m seeing more and more people returning to Vietnam.”

The company today

Taxi drivers and cyclo peddlers often dropped customers at the agency’s door. Ann Tours grew from that beginning into private tours, shore excursions, and executive travel across East Asia — still run with the same standard of care, from first inquiry to the last transfer.

Private tours across East Asia, founded in Ho Chi Minh City.

Story and photographs adapted from PBS Vietnam Passage: The Stories — Ann (part 1, part 2).