Obituary of De Thi Do

De Thi Do was born in Hanoi on January 12, 1933, the second child in a family of three sisters and one brother. At the age of thirteen, De fell in love with Van Quan Tran, who lived several houses down the street from hers. Van, who was twenty-five at the time, waited for De to turn eighteen before getting married. After the division of Vietnam in 1954, De and Van moved to Saigon to raise their three children. De loved animals and her house was filled with them: dogs, cats, chickens, turtles, ducks, geese, and fish. She was most fond of songbirds and kept a large outdoor aviary that contained everything from pigeons to canaries to grackles. In 1975, with the fall of Vietnam, Van was imprisoned and De remained at home caring for her youngest child and their two dogs. When Van was finally released from prison, he and De moved to Paris to live with their eldest daughter. Several years later, they immigrated to the United States and shared a home with their son, his wife, and two grandchildren. They eventually settled into the Vietnamese community at Garden Grove. All those who knew De cherished her gentle nature, her unceasing generosity, and her immeasurable talent. Over the course of her life, she hand-knitted over fifty beautiful sweaters for her children and grandchildren. A gifted cook, she was a repository of traditional North Vietnamese recipes and was especially famous for her exquisite jelly creations (thach). Everything that she touched flourished under her care, including the vibrant fruits and flowers in her garden. With her soft-spoken and selfless spirit, she anchored and ordered the home. In the smallest details of her daily labors, De held her family together with unstinting devotion and quiet strength.