Dedication to My Father - Rest in Peace 4/8/1943 - 7/15/2019

This is Jacqueline T.D. Huynh.  Today I am speaking to you with a broken heart. my father’s heart stopped beating on Monday, July 15, 2019, at 11:38 PM

Parent Pump Radio will be airing some top listened to past episodes for the next few weeks. We will return the first week of August with brand new episodes so that my family and I can take the time to grieve.----more----

It all happened so fast.   He was rushed to the hospital that morning because his speech was slurred and the right side of his lip was curled up. We were told he had a massive brain hemorrhage and that he wouldn’t survive. There were probably 2 dozen family members who rush to his side throughout that day and so many more on the phone, text message and Facebook. He was only able to hold on until 11:38 pm.

Stories have been coming in from family members all over. We're realizing what a wondering man he was not just to his children but to all the family members.

Daddy was a man of service to his country. He served as an officer in the South Vietnamese Army fighting alongside American soldiers in the Vietnam War. On April 25, 1975, five days before the collapse of our country, he was able to send my mom, my 4 younger sisters, and myself on a cargo plane to Guam for safety so that he could stay and fight for our country knowing we were safe. On April 30, when Saigon collapsed and was in chaos he still would not stop saving people. He rescued people into his Jeep and gathered more people on the boat to escape.

He worked in social service for years after we arrived in the US so he could continue to be of service. He helped dozens of Vietnamese refugees get settled here. It was important to him that we all be an asset to the community and to the US (He always came from gratitude). My father was part of the movement that created what we know now as Little Saigon in Westminster, CA, which now has the largest Vietnamese population in the world outside of the country itself.

He was the kindest, gentlest, most emotionally intelligent and patient man I know. Not once have I heard him raise his voice or get mad. He spoke very little but when he spoke you knew it was something important. I remember he would come to UC Irvine to pick me up on Saturday mornings to come home for visits. There were Fridays that I was out late and didn’t come back to my dorm room. He would just sit in the car waiting patiently for when I got back. (Before cell phone or pagers). He never got mad that he had to wait or didn’t know where I was. He was just glad to see me.

He always thought of others first. He never wanted to inconvenience anyone, be fretted over, or cause anyone pain.

Fifteen years ago, my youngest sister, Tina, passed away at 30 years old and my grandmother passed away 3 months later. It was excruciatingly painful for him and all of us to go through the day of their passing, then again at the memorial service and then again when we scattered their ashes. He talked about how his heart broke 6 times in that 3-month period. He felt so bad that people were taking time off work and spending so much money coming in for their services last minute. He was adamant that when he passed he didn’t want his loved ones to go through the same.

His last wishes were that he wanted to donate his body to the UC Irvine Willed Body Program for science and research (even in death he wanted to be of service). He only wanted his loved ones to go through saying good-bye one time. He wanted us to take time to grieve and then come together at a later planned time to celebrate his life.

He is in heaven with the Creator. He is free, at peace, running and jumping happily with his baby girl, Tina, and his parents. We know his love for us is endless and now he is in a place where he can have boundless energy to be of service to everyone. He will forever be in our hearts.

Now more than ever I realize how important leaving a legacy is. Not just a legacy in money but a legacy in who you are, your compassi