When she was a young girl, our grandmother, Lan Trinh, came under the care of Catholic nuns. As a child, she would collect snails on the beach and make her noodle soup to sell. She met our grandfather when they both left home at 17 years old to work on a rubber plantation in Laos. There, they fell in love and together opened a convenience store and barber shop, and eventually went on to build and rent out seven houses in Saigon, Vietnam. 

 

Always a devout Christian, she often donated to the poor, and gave away rice bags to the hungry during the disruption caused by the Communist invasion of Vietnam. In 1975, our grandparents left everything that they had known and built together to come to the United States for freedom.

 

They raised us while our parents worked to support our extended family of 8 people. Our childhood memories are peppered with her home cooked dishes.  

 

Not being able to speak English, our grandmother made piece-meal jewelry, and collected and redeemed recycled cans to make money. She eventually applied, passed her test and became a proud US citizen. Our grandmother voted in her first US presidential election before she passed away on October 14, 2008.

 

Trinity Kitchens is inspired and named in her honor.