Escape to America: An Edmond author adds to the many harrowing stories that came from the Fall of Saigon in 1975
EDMOND, Okla. (KFOR) — Memories and the words to describe them.
Amy M. Le works with both to grapple with her family history after the collapse of Saigon, and the destruction of her family.
'It was amazing how resilient, not only my mom but the people who were left behind were,' she says.
She is the author of several books, including her own memoir from that time.
Only an infant in the Spring of 1975, her father was a South Vietnamese soldier but secretly married to an American.
'He was literally splitting his time between our family and his American wife,' learned Amy.
When it came time to evacuate, Amy's mother refused.
'My mom was like, 'No.' 'Why would I go with you and your American wife. What would I do there?'' said Amy.
It would be another four years before Amy, her mother, and cousin could try to escape the country.
They did so under the cover of darkness and beneath a hail of bullets, only to be cast adrift on an overcrowded boat.
Amy was stuffed inside a putrid hold.
'It was horrible,' she recalls. 'It's one thing that still triggers me when I smell something like that.'
Some of their number fell victim to pirates.
Malaysian authorities wouldn't take them at first.
They burned their boat rather than return to sea.
Stifling tears, Amy relates, 'We had a lot of women and children who were either stolen from us or raped. But we were lucky, in a sense, that all of us did make it to a refugee camp.'
A sponsor from Seattle brought them to the U.S.
Throughout her young life, Amy remained in dire need of heart surgery due to a congenital defect.
'Doctors told us they didn't think I would live past the age of five,' said Amy.
She's written about all these things from the perspective of safety.
Her mother's photograph looks down from a shrine in Le's Edmond home, still on guard, still watching.
'It's to honor my mom and the incredible woman that she was,' smiles Amy.
Amy, her husband, and son moved to Oklahoma several years ago, surprised to find a community filled with similar stories.
She added hers to that collective, the memories always carried forward.
Amy M. Le's 'The Snow Trilogy' is a novelization of her mother's struggle to survive those years and live in America.
She has dedicated herself to helping other authors get their own stories into print.
For more information, go to Quill Hawk Publishing here.
Great State is sponsored by True Sky Credit Union
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