20 Marian Helper • Winter 2022-23 • Marian.org During Dzung’s absence and for several years afterward, the statue presided in peace over a loving, devout, active household — so active, in fact, that at least once, it was the statue itself that was in danger. Dzung and Dzu’s daughter, Dziep Nguyen, recalls a time when one of her brothers kicked a ball inside the house and hit the statue. Thankfully, it was not damaged. Later, when the family did face peril, Our Lady was beside them. Wartime escape During the VietnamWar, Dzung worked for American intelligence. When the United States decided to pull its troops out of the country in April 1975, Dzung was among the first to know. By this time, the family had grown: Dzung, Dzu, and their nine children lived in Saigon with Dzu’s mother. Dzung sprang into action to safeguard his family, arranging for them to be evacuated from the city before the enemy arrived. Dziep, 10 years old at the time, remembers the preparations for departure. Her mother, a seamstress, sewed each child a small backpack and filled it with food in case any By Marian Friedrichs Long journey home World of Mercy: Vietnam Dzung Tran knew how to protect his family. When Dzung had to travel to Japan for military training in 1965, his wife, Dzu Nguyen, and their seven children remained behind in Vietnam. The family lived far from both sets of grandparents, and Dzung needed to leave his loved ones in good hands, so he made a special trip to a Redemptorist monastery. Dzung came home with a two-foot tall statue of Our Lady and entrusted his family to her maternal care. Dzu Nguyen lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and, every night, prays the Rosary before the two-foot-tall statue of Our Lady that her husband bought 57 years ago in Vietnam.
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