Every
life has a story. Whether we believe in destiny, or define the story of
our lives as fate or kismet, things do happen in life to make each of
our journeys unique. The special Vietnamese family who makes Lantern
Moon knitting needles believes in the power of destiny. This is the
story of how their lives became intertwined with yours.
A
few years ago I wrote to my Vietnamese friend Quang asking for his help
in setting up a factory to make wooden knitting needles in
Vietnam
. He is the eldest of four children in a very closely knit family in
Vietnam
. After much discussion about the importance of quality and
consistency, he suggested that his father’s small factory could be
adapted to make knitting needles. I had worked with Quang for many
years and knew his father Thuan and family quite well. We had
celebrated many birthdays and New Year holidays together and because
relationships are important to any business, the idea made good sense.
It was a place to start but not where this story begins.
In
Vietnam
, if you have lived long enough, your life has two stories. Your first
story ends in 1975, and your second story begins thereafter. 1975 was
the year when the long struggle of the
Vietnam
conflict ended, yet new hardships lay ahead for its people. They
suffered from continued wars, floods, food shortages, re-education
camps or prison.
After
the war, Thuan, the father of the family who now makes Lantern Moon
knitting needles, just wanted to get on with life and make the best of
what lay ahead. The family struggled along like every one else but
without political connections and being just regular folks, their
struggle was just to survive. Losing hope that their lives in
Vietnam
would soon improve, they and many of their countrymen set about making
plans to leave and begin life anew in another country. In the West we
heard about them as Boat People,
and they soon began to arrive all over the world. By the late 1970’s
and into the early 1980’s, millions of Vietnamese citizens had
immigrated to many countries around the world.
After
much searching Thuan and his brother Huyet finally found a boat on
which they would attempt their escape. The family took off into the
night waters of the Mekong Delta where a boat awaited them, filled with
other desperate families willing to risk everything for a new life. I
can only imagine the mixed emotions they must have felt as they left
the shore and headed out into the darkness of the open sea.
Their
goal was to make it into the shipping lanes of international waters. If
they made it past the pirates and the police, and if the leaky
overloaded boat stayed upright, they might have a chance. Once they
made it to international waters, the plan was to disable the motor and
wait for a passing freighter, with the hope it would see their tiny
craft before ramming into it. If they were lucky, they might be picked
up and taken to a refugee camp, then resettled in a new country which
they would call home.
The
desperate but determined families boarded their small boat with their
sights set on a better life in a new homeland. Believing they had
reached international waters, one of the men stood on the deck and
screamed, “We have made it out of
Vietnam
!” Soon after, one of the boat’s two engines sputtered and died. Unable
to see well enough to repair the engine, they decided to attempt sleep
and deal with the problem in the morning.
They
awoke to the sound of boats approaching them … pirates, police, navy,
they weren’t certain. They fired up the boat’s one engine and tried to
outrun them but they were far too slow. The navy was catching up to
them, guns blazing and bullets flying. Uncle Huyet was at the helm, and
everyone else was on the floor praying, praying for their lives.
Finally, Thuan took off his white shirt and waved it in surrender.
Huyet
spent two years in jail after their capture, but prison didn’t keep the
brothers from scheming and dreaming about future attempts to escape
Vietnam
. Twice more the brothers tried but failed to escape by boat, each time
losing all they had to pirates or police, and each time serving prison
sentences to receive more “re-education.” Although splitting up the
family would increase their chance for success, there would be no
guarantee they would be reunited. Either they would escape together, or
not at all, the brothers believed, the most important goal was to
remain an intact family.
After
the last failed attempt, Thuan sat in prison imagining his oldest son
Quang, who was only eight years old at the time, wandering the streets
looking for food while his wife took care of the baby. It was at this
moment, sitting alone in prison, that Thuan realized it was his destiny
to stay in
Vietnam
.
As
Thuan reflects back on that time he recalls, “Each time we tried to
leave we had less and less for the pirates and the police to steal, but
things were also getting a little better in the country so I thought
there must be something we are supposed to be doing here.” And,
according to Thuan, that something turned out to be the needle factory.
“After 1975 it seems like I spent all my waking hours trying to keep
the family together and get out of the country so that I could take
care of them but for some reason it never worked. I never understood
why until the opportunity to make the needles came along. Now it is
what we do. It is why we are here. It is how we stay together. It is
how I take care of my family and it was our destiny.”
Is
it important to know who makes you needles and to know that they
believe in destiny? We think so. Uncle Huyet asked me recently, “I
spent two years in prison trying to gain my freedom. If my attempts to
get out of
Vietnam
had been successful, who would make your needles?”
click here to go back to Lantern Moon Needles
