Vietnamese sisters survived refugee journey, now pay it forward in Atlanta

The classic Thanksgiving origin tale tells the story of a group of courageous pilgrims who sailed across the ocean in search of freedom and a new beginning. Along the way, the travelers are aided by the kindness of strangers in a strange land.

The story resonates with many of the Vietnamese seniors who will celebrate Thanksgiving at First Senior Center of Georgia in Norcross this week. Many of the 500 seniors who will attend the nonprofit day center’s Thanksgiving festivities have personal tales of crossing seas, surviving hardships and building new lives as refugees or veterans.

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

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The story also resonates with the two Vietnamese women who largely run First Senior Center: the Tran sisters — Von (the center’s founder and CEO) and Linda (the center’s food bank and kitchen manager).

A tale of survival

In 1983, when they were just 9 and 6 years old growing up in communist Vietnam, the Tran sisters’ parents woke them in the dead of night and brought them to the edge of the sea. They were instructed to crawl down into the bottom of a fishing canoe, where they were hidden by a blanket of fishing nets.

They fit snugly alongside their three older siblings while their parents loaded into a second boat behind them. They had not been told in advance of their parents’ plans to leave their homeland, nor what to expect from the journey.

Von Tran remembers the weight of the nets over her — about 5 inches thick, she said — and how the canoe was stopped by inspectors who used the barrels of their long guns to poke down into the boat.

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

The inspectors found no one. All seven members of the Tran family made it to a larger ship, where roughly 65 refugees were stowed away for what would be a harrowing six-night journey.

They quickly ran out of water and food. They ate dried vomit and drank urine to survive, not knowing how long the trip might take.

“I was in and out of consciousness,” Von Tran said. “All I was thinking, hallucinating, was about a cold glass of ice water.”

The threat of pirates was real. Oftentimes, boats suspected of carrying migrants were targeted because they carried the gold bars and jewelry refugees used to pay their passage.

“Fishermen turned into pirates because it was more lucrative to rob refugee boats,” Von Tran remembered.

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When encountering pirates, women were often raped. Men thrown overboard. Everyone threatened. Von Tran has heard the stories from many Vietnamese seniors.

“But by the grace of God,” Von Tran said, “our boat did not suffer (such atrocities).”

Instead, they encountered true fishermen who shared their rice, fuel and water on the final leg of the journey.

A violent storm nearly sank the boat on the fourth day, but by the fifth, “the ocean was calm again,” Von Tran said. The storm pushed their vessel close to the shores of a remote island off Malaysia. They swam to land, where they ate coconuts and tide pool fish.

The Malaysian Coast Guard showed up and transported the group of refugees to a United Nations Vietnamese refugee camp on another island, where the Tran family stayed for roughly 18 months. During that time, Von and Linda’s mother gave birth to a baby boy.

As a family of eight, the Trans had trouble finding a sponsor abroad. Eventually, a Catholic church in Dallas, Texas, agreed to sponsor them and help move them to America.

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

Their father, Thien Tran, got a maintenance job earning $3.54 an hour. He stayed employed by the same man for 30 years. That employer, a kindhearted Italian American, helped the Tran family get established and move into a Section 8, two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment.

The family was approved for food stamps and used local food pantries. Von’s father’s employer also helped them graciously.

“I was very much inspired by what my father’s employer did for us,” Von Tran said.

In reflection, she added, perhaps the generosity of the fisherman, the food banks and her father’s employer seeded in her a spirit of altruism.

Decades later, she would start First Senior Center of Georgia to serve vulnerable Vietnamese seniors, many of whom also fled their home for the U.S.

Giving back

Von Tran, now 52, founded First Senior Center of Georgia in 2017. The nonprofit operates a free health day center for seniors and a large food bank.

The day center serves roughly 300-450 Vietnamese and other minority seniors. Many are medically frail and recipients of Medicaid. A fleet of vans picks up seniors each weekday and brings them to the center, where they are provided meals, bilingual health services, translation help, transportation, benefits enrollment aid, wellness programs, end-of-life care, social events and a sense of community.

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

The food bank, which is operated in partnership with Atlanta Community Food Bank, distributes more than 200,000 pounds of food to roughly 3,200 households per month and is the second-largest food pantry in the state.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, First Senior Center offered home grocery delivery and became a vaccination site, which ultimately increased the organization’s reach in Norcross. After the pandemic, the organization moved into a larger, 26,000-square-foot facility to accommodate a growing community.

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Linda Tran, 49, moved to Georgia in 2020 to help her sister run the center. Their mother, Lisa Luong, is also actively involved, mostly as an adviser and helper in the kitchen.

“We go all out for holidays,” Von Tran said.

Thanksgiving is particularly festive. Every year since the center opened, it has hosted an extravagant, multiday celebration.

On the Thursday before Thanksgiving, the center hosts its traditional American feast with poultry, gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans and pumpkin soup. The dining room is decorated floor-to-ceiling in autumn decor. Many guests dress up in pilgrim costumes.

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

Hosting an American Thanksgiving is important, Von Tran said, because it connects seniors to their present home.

“Thanksgiving is a chance to celebrate and reflect on the new life they have been given here in America,” she said.

First Senior Center member Be Nguyen, 78, agreed.

“Thanksgiving at First Senior Center is a chance for us — older adults who have lived through many years of wandering in a foreign land — to gather together, to remember our earliest days in this new country, and to bow our heads in gratitude for the kindness that carried us through,” she said.

On another day during the Thanksgiving season, First Senior Center prepares a Vietnamese feast in the form of an enormous batch of bún riêu (crab noodle soup). The soup, native to northern Vietnam, is a comfort that reminds seniors of their roots and offers the familiarity of Asian flavors.

Credit: Wes Carter

“It brings good feelings and good memories,” said Von Tran, who stresses that holidays are a time to not only care for seniors physically, but emotionally. “We take care of our elders with all our heart and soul. … It is the spirit of the season to be thankful, and we have much to be thankful for.”

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