Macon Magazine

December 2024/January 2025| maconmagazine.com 63 T he pursuit of a better life can be powerful, motivating – and in many cases, extremely dangerous. Tom Vinh Tran and his sister Kathy May Tran have come to know this all too well. Their mother, the late Hue Tran, fled communist North Vietnam as a teenager in 1978 after the United States military troops withdrew, signaling the end of the Vietnam War. "She wanted to escape the communist government," Tom Vinh said. Kathy May recalls her mother telling stories of the horrors seen during her unorthodox journey to freedom. The fishing boat in which Hue escaped at age 19 capsized after hundreds of miles in the water, somewhere near Malaysia. Miraculously, Hue Tran survived the perilous journey, swam, and exited the water. She hid in an undeveloped jungle on Bidong Island for quite some time, before finally making it to the Pulau Bidong refugee camp, where she lived among thousands of refugees for several years. Eventually, Hue (pronounced like way) emigrated to the United States, married, and resettled in Pine Hill, Louisiana, a small town near Shreveport. In 1986 her son, Tom Vinh Tran, was born. Fifteen months later came his sister, Kathy May Tran. Tom Vinh doesn't remember much about his early childhood in Louisiana. The family traveled between Louisiana and Central Georgia several times, since their father was a civilian working for the U.S. military. Hue eventually divorced her husband and moved to Warner Robins when Tom Vinh was 4 years old. The first few apartments they lived in Warner Robins were in an unsafe neighborhood in a distressed area of the city. Kathy May recalls that they would hear gunshots almost every weekend. Twice, their home was broken into. The second time, Hue was assaulted and suffered severe cuts to her hand. Doctors thought Hue would never get back full functionality in her hand due to nerve damage caused by the attack, which had cut her hand down to her bone. Though small in stature, Hue was a strong, formidable woman. Despite her injuries, Hue began attending classes at Macon College, now known as Middle Georgia State University. Not only did she regain use of her hand, Hue earned a nursing degree in 2003. Her children explained Hue began telling people she met to call her Whitney, because people had trouble pronouncing her name. Whitney was the name of a kindergarten classmate of her daughter, Kathy May. "We all have pretty much American names," Kathy May said. The family's fortunes changed in 2001, when the teenagers and their mother moved into a three-

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