By Phan Quang Tuệ, Yule Tide Spirit of 2013
Dear Friends,
I’d like to relate to you a memorable event that happened to me during the Christmas season this year. On the 24th, a day before Christmas, I received a Christmas card that both surprises and tugs at my heartstring.
The card reads: “To the honorable Phan Quang Tue. Dear Judge, I have known you since my days in Vietnam. By chance I’ve learned on Facebook that you have retired from your judgeship, I also left you a message on your Facebook page but did not get a reply. Please check the message that I’ve sent.” It continues:
“You might not remember this but years ago, I (name withheld to protect his privacy) had met you one late night on Phan Thanh Gian Street in Saigon. Best wishes and good health to your honorable and your family during Christmas and the new year.”
Pedicabs in Vietnam. Photo from Haivenu-Vietnam.com
While my mind’s eyes tried to replay this episode of long ago, my hand reflexively put this curious card aside on the desk in my study. Normally my wife would place all our Christmas cards on a small table near the Christmas tree in the living room. That evening my wife and I, along with our sons and daughters in-law, and grandchildren gathered in our familial party celebrating the birth of our Savior. We opened gifts, playing the white elephant game. The party did not end until late in the night when the children left. I helped my wife tidied up the house, the activities temporarily relegated the event to another corner of my mind.
The next morning when I got up my wife was still in her peaceful slumber. I always love the quiet distilled atmosphere of the house in the early morn. Quietly, I went downstairs, stepped into my study, got out the card and read it again in front of the computer. I got on Facebook and after some searching found the message written to me back in the middle of September. Indeed, I let this message on Facebook escape me.
So here and now, I started to read the note, dated September 18, 2013, addressing me on Facebook. I recorded it here verbatim and kept the style exactly the same as it was written (in Vietnamese):
“Dear Judge Phan Quang Tue, I have looked for you (my dear benefactor!) over the last 30 years. I would like to recall the memories of our first meeting that late night on Phan Thanh Gian Street in Saigon (1962?). I was a 15 years-old boy, pedaling my pedicab to take my benefactor to his home (adjacent to the Ba Chieu Market). We stopped in front of the iron gate of Dr. Phan Quang Dan home, which was sealed off by the order of the Ngo Dinh Diem government!”
“On the way driving my benefactor home, I received his advices: “You are too young to have lived such a spartan and strenuous life, so try to study hard. My father, Dr. Phan Quang Dan got imprisoned by the Ngo Dinh Diem government so I do not have the opportunity to help you more, but….” Then stepping off the pedicab, the handsome young man emptied his pockets to find all the money he had and gave them to me! “Try to do well in school, my little brother…”
“With those sincere and warm words of advice he bid me good bye. Yet those kind words and loving gestures etched deep in my heart and soul forever! From that time on I have become “successful” … I was drafted in the Thu Duc Military Academy for the class of March 1968 (while my benefactor big brother was drafted in the class of February 68 Thu Duc). I came over to the U.S. via the Truong Xuan ship, which left the Bach Dang Newport in Saigon on the afternoon of April 30, 1975, and I have never returned to Vietnam to this day.”
“Saturday, September 15, 2013, brother HQB (full name withheld for privacy reason) arrived to my home from Portland. I confided in him the story of meeting you while I was plying my trade pedaling the cyclo-pousse (pedicab) and the amount of money that you had given me along with the valuable advice. Brother B talked about his own opportunity where he met you, big brother Judge, which got me overcome with joy, I immediately asked him for your honorable big brother’s telephone number but unfortunately he did not remember.”
“I have a wife and 2 sons, both of whom graduated from Georgia Tech; one of them is teaching chemistry in this school, the other son is working as an engineer for Boston Consulting Group, his wife is working as a manager-pharmacist. They have a 8 month-old daughter; both of their families are living in downtown Atlanta.”
“If big brother has the chance to read these heartfelt lines, please give me a call so I can celebrate our fortuitous meeting after more than 50 years of searching for big brother Judge.
My dear venerable benefactor.
I , (name withheld)
I have contacted this person the following morning. My wife and I have talked on the phone to him and his wife for more than an hour. We learned that after the meeting that night, the 15 years-old teenager had cracked many books. He successfully passed his Baccalaureate degree examination in the B Section (Mathematics). After the 1968 Tet Offensive, this young man enlisted in the class March 68 in Thu Duc Military Academy (I entered the Thu Duc class of February 68 a few months ahead). Because he was good at math, he’d chosen the Artillery branch, and became an artillery officer. In 1972, he was sent to study in the United
States and after graduation he went back to Vietnam to continue serving in the Artillery of the ARVN. On April 30, 1975, he left Vietnam on board the Truong Xuan
ship under the helm of Captain Pham Ngoc Luy. In the United States, he is now a civil servant for one of the counties. His wife works as a state civil servant. They have relatives in San Jose. They had 2 sons, both are successful.
The story took place 51 years ago. Then I was barely 20 and the young cyclo-pousse driver in the story was a 15 years-old teenager. My father was imprisoned in Con Dao after the November 11, 1960 coup d’état. After a period of hiding in the home of Vuong Quoc Cuong’s parents (Cuong was a law school classmate who later became chief judge of Quang Ngai. He died after 1975 while trying to escape the communists by boat), I returned to law school to study and, to support myself and my younger brother, was a teacher in a private school, also tutoring the 4 daughters and one son of millionaire Nguyen Dinh Quat. Often I would take the Gold bus home in Ba Chieu, Gia Dinh. When it was too late for the Golden Bus to run, I had to take a pedicab. And that was how I met the young man that evening on Phan Thanh Gian Street.
Perhaps the story is not special because of the 20 year-old law student’s gestures, but it is endearing because of the 15 year-old teenager invincible spirit to overcome his lot and endeavor. For me, he was the main benefactor, the messenger of faith in this season of Peace on earth and Good Will toward men. And I ‘ve said so over the phone the first time the couple, my wife and I conversed.
Although my story, our story, was the story of interaction between two individuals in a brief fateful encounter one evening 51 years ago , yet it carries in my opinion a message of hope, destiny, and the human spirit. I think the story should be shared. So I’m asking you to allow me to send it to you as a Christmas present.
