Grandma Visits Us in America

(Bà Nội Du Lịch Mỹ)

The day has come, I thought to myself, today is the day when grandma would
arrive at the airport to visit us for a year or so.

It was June 28, 2002. I was then twelve years old, my brothers and I woke up
very early that day, we woke up at nine (for us that is very early in the
summer). We had to eat breakfast, sort the beds and clean up because we had to
leave for Washington Dulles International Airport around noon. I was very excited to see my grandma
again, it has been almost three years since I last visited Vietnam and saw her. I made my bed and cleaned my room thinking if she would recognize me, if she had
changed, if the plane would be on time, if Bác Tâm (my dad’s friend who would be
responsible to escort her over) would bring the right woman! Questions raced
through my mind and I was very, very nervous. Mom’s voice calling me to go eat
suddenly interrupted my thoughts. I raced downstairs with my two brothers and
called dibbs on my seat. I think we had “phở” that day. I was too nervous to eat
so I raced through the meal very quickly and ran upstairs to change.

We left around noon and came to the airport. Thomas, my littlest brother was
always excited to go to the airport to see planes. We entered through the gates
and lobbies, pasted a bazillion people and sat at the gate. We waited, waited
and waited… My dad took pictures of us on every single pose to kill time. Mom
was reading a magazine. Thomas was playing with a toy he brought along. Jonathan, my other brother, was walking around looking for something to buy to
eat, AS ALWAYS! I was making sure I looked perfect and went to the bathroom
every ten minutes. It seemed forever! But finally the speakers came on
announcing the flight landing. Then the gates opened. Another bazillion people
came out. Dad had the camera aiming at the perfect gate at the perfect spot when
they would perfectly enter through it to take the perfect picture of grandma
when she walked in. It seemed like everybody had already got off because we saw
the pilot and co–pilot leave. It seemed like hours before my dad saw Bác Tâm. Bác Tâm came out with piles upon piles of suitcases and out came his wife
following and at last grandma came through the gates. I thought to myself,
finally! We took like a hundred pictures, said hello and thank-you to Bác Tâm
and left.

[Picture – At the airport:
Mom, Jonathan, me (Margaret),

Grandma, Thomas, Bác Tâm, his wife & daughter]

As soon as we exited the main doors and walked towards the parking lot, the
questions erupted. Now, I thought to myself, I know when I visited Vietnam I had
a gazillion questions like why the neighbor’s cow is always starring at us or
why do men who drive motorcycles stop and whizzed wherever and whenever they
wanted. So, I kind of understood why grandma had so many questions about every
little detail. She asked about busses and taxis and why buildings are so big and
how come everyone is driving an automobile and not a bike like in Vietnam, and
she asked about white people and black people and Hispanics, she asked about how
the roads where so clean, I thought that was kind of a crazy question until I
remembered that they have dirt roads back there. She asked about hot dog stands
and plants and how houses are so big and why it’s called a WHITE House and how
the tallest thing in America is in the shape of a pencil (Washington Monument)
and why Americans are so enormously fat. SHE ASKED ABOUT EVERYTHING AND
ANYTHING. It got kind of annoying but I do understand because now that I think
back I had some stupid questions like why are chickens tied on to motorcycle and
why we throw bones (chicken, beef, pork, fish, etc.) under the table for the
dogs (that seriously scared me the first time I threw a bone).

When we got home, grandma was sleeping in Jonathan’s room because she did not
want to sleep in a separate bedroom by herself. She rested and unpacked. She had
gifts for everyone, from “áo dài” to jewelry to toys to hair accessories and
food (it’s not like we have enough over here already). She brought over so much
dried bamboo that every time mom makes Bún Măng, I ate Mì Gói because I was so
sick of Măng… We still have some even now (it’s been two years for the love of
God)! Anyways back to unpacking, I tried on every single áo dài and we ate Măng
for a month… oh… my… gosh! I thought to myself, I thought I was going to die! About a week later I asked grandma to move over to my room. That night,
something woke me up. It was a bright light… I thought to myself… oh my gosh I’m
dead, I’m in heaven… but when my site came into focus I saw grandma kneeling and
then I heard…AMEN! Grandma was praying… it was twelve. So I thought OK it’s
probably jet lagging. So I fell back to sleep. But then something woke me up;
again, I opened my eyes and saw a bright light again. I thought to myself oh my
gosh the heaven gates have opened but then heard… Hail Mary full of grace… it
was grandma, I thought because she was too nervous to sleep so she prayed and
ask God to help her to sleep. Now usually I’m a very deep sleeper… but that
night I guess I was too excited to share a room with grandma that I was hardly
sleeping. I found grandma sleeping on the floor the next morning. My first
reaction was that I think I might have kicked her (I do that…A LOT!). When she
woke up I asked her why she was sleeping on the floor. She said that the bed was
hot and she wasn’t used to sleeping on a mattress. I thought grandma was
insane, who turns down a mattress?! But I remembered that grandma slept on a
wooden bed back home with no mattress. Each morning grandma woke up around three
or four… IN THE MORNING! I would wake up around noon but made an effort to
wake up early to walk with grandma, and then sit with her in the hammock while
she eats breakfast. I soon learned that grandma fasts. She only eats one meal a
day… lunch. She did this every Wednesday and Friday.

[Picture – At the Vietnamese
Church: Mom, Dad, Thomas, Grandma, me (Margaret),

Jonathan and Father Minh (also
from Vietnam – Nhân Hòa)]

In July of that year we went to Ocean City. Grandma complimented how clean
the beaches were unlike Vũng Tàu and how the water is so clean you can actually
see your footsteps under water. My brothers, grandma and I built sand castles,
caught sand crabs and took long strolls in the mornings and after dinner. One
afternoon, while swimming, grandma caught a small crab, a real crab not a sand
crab! We placed it in the bucket for Thomas to admire. The waves were truly
intense that week we stayed. Grandma held onto my arms while tiptoeing out to
the water, she stopped when it reached her waist and started scooping up water
to herself like she was rinsing herself. Then a humungous wave came. I
screamed my lungs out because grandma was squeezing my arm so hard that my veins
could pop out. We were both really scared! The wave hit us and the next thing I
knew when I opened my eyes was that I was underwater and grandma was washed onto
me. After a week of being tanned we returned home.

August came and school started in the last week of it. I was in a catholic
school, seventh grade. I had to move grandma back to Jonathan’s room because I
couldn’t keep up with the praying at twelve and three in the morning.

October, HALLOWEEN! Out of all the things that could be possible confusing to
her, she was most confused about this. Dad tried to explain Halloween and how
children dressed up in costumes and go door-to-door and ‘ask’ for candy. He used
a simile, Halloween is like Tết only instead of money you get candy and instead
of dragons you dress up as goblins ghouls, witches, monsters, and ghosts. We
invited grandma to come along but she insisted that she stay for it was prayer
time. Grandma is no nun but if she was how many times will she pray then?

November, Thanksgiving. We ate at a buffet for Thanksgiving. Grandma was in
wonder and awe when she saw how much food there was, from rice to noodles to
vegetables to dessert and fish and seafood to fruits and pudding and cake and
pizza.

[Picture – At the restaurant: Me (Margaret),

Jonathan, Grandma, Thomas, Mon & Dad)]

It was in December. Grandma couldn’t stand the cold and wants to go back
home, it had only been approximately five months. Grandma saw pictures and heard
stories about snow but never seen it for herself. Snow to her was like a legend.
It was December and in about a three week she was leave to go back to Vietnam
and dad would escort her back. She prayed each night ten times more for snow
because it had been midwinter and no snow had fallen. Then when all was to give
up hope, December fifth, a day of miracles. It snowed and snowed and snowed, not
just one inch, not two inches, not one foot but 3 feet! We spent the whole day
outside making snowball. Grandma was so excited that she was about to run out
without a boot. She touched the snow and almost cried because she never seen it
before, it was like a step towards heaven to her. She begged us to help her take
some home for her friends in Vietnam to see but we explained how it would melt
by then.

[Picture – First Snow for
Grandma in front of our house]

Mid- December, it was time to leave. Grandma packed and so did Dad, from
clothes to gifts to medicine to candies and other types of food. Dad and Grandma
had to drive to the airport twelve hours before boarding because it was icing
outside. Roads would be iced by tomorrow morning so they left the night before.
We said our good byes, got the pictures to show Vietnam and watched as they back
out the driveway.

Even though grandma asked bizarre questions at times, prayed constantly, went
to church everyday, and could be sometimes irritating, I couldn’t help but miss
her. I hope one day again she would come over again for an actual year or we
visit Vietnam again.

– Lan, 14, daughter of Nguyễn Duy-An