My name is Tien Brown. When I was 7 years of age, we prepared for our escape from Vietnam. My parents cashed in everything we owned and turned it into small gold bars. My mother hid all our gold and jewelry by sewing them inside our jackets. She also went through the process of shaving off all her hair to make her less attractive. In the middle of the night in April 1979, my family of 6 (mom, dad, uncle, aunt, me, and my 3 siblings) climbed into a small fishing boat 9 x 35 ft long. There were 230 children and adults sitting shoulder to shoulder.

 

The boat headed towards Malaysia. We had 2 days of stormy weather at sea and were stopped by pirates a couple of times. The pirates forced their way onto our boat and robbed us. They took whatever they wanted, including some of the women. As I remember, the pirates would go down the line of people and demand their money and belongings. When the pirates were getting close to our family, my mother would pinch me and my siblings hard so we would cry. With the four children crying, the pirates would just skip us and move on.

 

The boat turned the lights off at night, so the pirates would not be able to see us and took its aimless course across the ocean. On the 10th day, lost at sea and out of food and water, we saw a boat approaching. We feared it was more pirates, but it turned out to be a Malaysian Navy ship. The Navy did not want our boat to land in Malaysia, due to the already overcrowded refugee camps. They towed our boat out of the Malaysia Ocean and set us adrift in the Indian Ocean. When cutting us loose, they directed our captain to a small island nearby where we may be able to find help. We ended up on an island called Letung. My family and I were so happy to survive the ocean and be on land again.

 

We stayed at Letung Refugee Camp for 3 months. Due to the overcrowding there, we were transported to a tiny desolate Indonesian island called Kuku Island. This is where our family worked together to build our own shelter on the beach from trees and whatever we could gather to set up camp. We would eat what we could catch in the ocean as well as whatever we could find on the island. We would hike to waterfalls for drinking water.

 

After some time, the USCRI (U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants) came to Kuku Island to help the Vietnamese refugees. They supplied the refugees with rice, soy sauce, water, and occasionally fish and clothes. The USCRI also helped us with paperwork to get sponsored to America to start our new lives.

 

After four months of camping in a hut on Kuku Island, our whole family (including my uncle and aunt who escaped with us) got sponsored by our aunt and Uncle in Los Angeles, California. Since my dad was in the South Vietnam military, we were blessed with the priority to leave the island before other refugees.

 

In January 1980, our whole family left Kuku Island and headed for Jakarta, Indonesia to get a physical exam and any necessary vaccine shots to enter America. After a few days there we were transported to Singapore to prepare for our long flight to San Francisco, California. We had a layover in San Francisco for a night and stayed in a hotel to catch an early flight out in the morning to Los Angeles, California. We were excited and waiting at the San Francisco Airport to board the plane, my mother realized that we had left one of our jackets, with the gold bars and jewels sewn inside, behind at the hotel. The USCRI staff called the hotel for us to let them know a jacket was left behind.

 

When we arrived in Los Angeles, California to meet with the uncle and aunt who sponsored us, a USCRI staff walked up to us with our jacket that was left behind in the hotel. It was all in one piece with everything still in it. My family and I are so happy to finally start our new life in the land of freedom.  As I remember, the first American food I had was KFC at the airport. It was the best food that I had ever tasted.

 

After a few months, my parents rented an apartment on the bottom floor in Los Angeles. One hot night, my parents left a window open to cool down. Unfortunately, while we were sleeping, we got burglarized. We lost all our gold bars and jewelry.  After all my family and I went through; we lost everything in the land that we struggled to get to.  We relocated to Westminster, California (Little Saigon) and started fresh with nothing but the help of the American Social Services. In 1981 my youngest sister was born. An American baby.

 

Due to work opportunities, my family relocated again to Placentia, CA. This was where we grew up. School was not easy for me and my siblings. We didn’t know any English at that time, and there was not a lot of help. With hard work and persistence, we all graduated high school, and every sibling went on to earn a college degree.

 

In 1990 my family became United States of America citizens by naturalization. This was truly a

happy and very emotional day for us. Not only that this was now our forever homeland, but we also felt safe and protected by the country. Our job opportunities soon expanded, and we now had the freedom to vote like all Americans.

 

My family moved to Riverside, CA in 1991 and I joined them in 1992.

 

I was hired by the United States Postal Service in 1995. This is where I met my husband, Brian Brown. He’s a Riverside native. We started dating in 2000 and married in Kauai, Hawaii in 2002.

 

As a Riverside native Brian always admired and envisioned living and raising a family in the Whitegate area. With our two beautiful daughters, Kayla and Lyndsey, we purchased our family home together in July 2005 on Basel Place. Our family of 4 with our rescue dog, Lana loves living in the Alessandro Heights neighborhood. We have been living here for 18 years and look forward to retiring here.

 

Both of our daughters Kayla (age 21) and Lyndsey (age 19) attended Washington Elementary, Gage Middle School, and Poly High School, and are currently at RCC. Both have aspirations to attend Loma Linda University to pursue medical careers. Kayla envisions becoming an ultrasound technician through the Diagnostic Sonography program while Lyndsey is on the path to becoming a Clinical Laboratory Scientist.

 

Kayla and Lyndsey have been involved with ballet at the Riverside Ballet Arts and performed in the Nutcracker for three years. It was an honor to perform with the girls for 2 years.

 

After Ballet, the girls were on the Tidal Wave swim team. And finish their sport with 7 years of club and Poly High School volleyball.  Kayla continued with 2 more years of volleyball at RCC and coaches at a local volleyball club.

 

We are an adventurous family. We love spending time together camping in our trailer, hiking, traveling, and making memories that last a lifetime. We’ve skydived and ziplined.  We love gathering with our family and friends during Christmas.

 

Brian and I both are Riverside postal carriers. We have been with the USPS for 29 years. Not only do I live in Alessandro Heights but I'm a carrier in this neighborhood too. I really enjoy getting to know some wonderful and amazing neighbors and watching children grow into adults. And now I get to serve the community by delivering Stroll magazines to all the homes on my route.

 

My husband and my daughters mean the world to me. I'm so grateful for being an American. The land of freedom and many opportunities.  I would like to thank my parents for risking everything for my sibling and me to have a better life.