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Marie-Claire: J’ai vécu au Vietnam jusqu’à l’âge de six ans, alors j’ai
reconnu l’alphabet vietnamien. Je parle le vietnamien. Mais
malheureusement, je ne sais pas le lire ou l’écrire. Alors, je ne pouvais
pas lire la lettre.
Ngofeen: One day, when Marie-Claire was about 14, her father read
her journal, and the situation exploded. Her parents admitted that she
was adopted.
Ngofeen: Tien told Marie-Claire that her father was a sergeant with
the U.S. Air Force. They met when Tien was working at the American
air base where he was stationed during the Vietnam war. After he
returned to the U.S., Tien lost touch with him.
Marie-Claire: Puis, elle m’a parlé de mes frères et sœurs. J’ai appris
que j’avais deux demi-frères et trois demi-sœurs au Vietnam.
Ngofeen: According to Tien, the couple left with Hong in April 1975,
five days before Saigon fell to the advancing Viet Cong troops. French
citizens were being evacuated, and in the chaos of war, no one was
checking children too closely.
Ngofeen: Now that Tien had finally found her daughter, she wanted
to see her as soon as possible. So a few months later, Tien booked a
flight from California to France.
Ngofeen: Tien stayed with Marie-Claire for nearly two weeks, sliding
into her daily routine. She helped her cook meals and drop her boys
off at school. Still, Marie-Claire couldn’t bring herself to fully trust this
woman she had just met.
Ngofeen: Marie-Claire laid down on the bed and closed her eyes. But
she couldn’t sleep. Eventually, she slipped out of bed and quietly laid
down on the floor next to her mother.
Ngofeen: After that trip, Hong—as we’ll call her from now on—was
determined to make Tien part of her life and meet the rest of her
family. Even her father, if she could find him. But first, she decided to
return to the place where her story had started: Vietnam.
Ngofeen: In 2005, Hong made her first trip to Vietnam. It was the
first time she returned to her birth country since being brought to
France as a child. She went with her mother.
Hong (Marie-Claire): C’était incroyable. J’ai rencontré mes demi-
sœurs et mes demi-frères. J’ai rencontré la femme de mon frère
jumeau, et ma nièce aussi. On est allés voir la maison où je suis née.
C'était une toute petite maison, avec quatre murs, sans toilettes, dans
un village. J’imaginais la vie de ma mère, là, avec huit enfants.
Ngofeen: Hong realized how poor and vulnerable her mother must
have been. She understood her mother in a different way and returned
from Vietnam with a new sense of self.
Ngofeen: Finally, in 2012, 12 years after she’d been reunited with her
birth mother, Hong raised enough money to fund a trip to meet her
twin brother in California.
Ngofeen: Hong’s long search for the pieces of her lost identity had
taken her to California and Vietnam. It ended in 2018 at a Cemetery in
Georgia. After taking a DNA test, Hong had finally tracked down the
name of her father—former U.S. Air Force sergeant Edmund
Lewandowski.
Hong (Marie-Claire): J’ai appris qu’il était mort en 1996. Mais j’ai
rencontré sa sœur et son fils, mon demi-frère. Je suis allée au
cimetière avec ma tante. J’ai déposé des roses sur la tombe de ce père
que je n’ai pas connu. J’ai enterré une mèche de mes cheveux au pied
de la tombe. Je suis restée devant, en silence, un long moment.
Ngofeen: After this trip, Hong finally felt that she was offered a new
beginning. She now proudly goes by the name that reflects her family’s
full heritage.
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