My mom told my dad that we can't go but he can because I was two and my brother was four, and we were too little. If we cry on the ship, they would throw us into the ocean. By that time people were so poor they couldn't go by airplane so they went on a small ship. My mom told my dad to go by himself because, when we got caught by the communist and got thrown back at least we would have a house to live in. If everybody left the house for three or four days the governor will take the house away.
When my dad came to America, I've been so grown up and It was six years later. I was still in Vietnam. But when my dad bought a ticket for my family to come to America I was happy to meet my dad and I also enjoyed the good new life I had here. I finally have my own freedom.
Dao, April 13, 1998