“The Vân Vân story is very personal. It is a little dramatic…” says Thảo Bùi. In January 2022, Thảo had been experiencing pain for eight months until one day, she couldn’t move at all. An MRI revealed a large brain tumor. She was scheduled for surgery to remove the tumor five days later. The night before her operation, Thảo FaceTimed with family in Việt Nam who, due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, were unable to travel to New York, where she and her husband, Duy, lived. When the call ended, she realized it might be the last time she would ever speak to them, and she reflected on all the things she had done in her life. “I just realized that a lot of the time when I was trying to get my green card, trying to go through the immigration process, trying to get the next position, the next level of my job, it just didn’t really mean much anymore,” says Thảo. She realized she wanted to do something related to Việt Nam, the homeland the couple felt more deeply connected to the older they got.
Keep reading
This story is for subscribers. Join to read it in full, and everything else we publish.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Up Next
The Mystery Spice
