“We came over, and we had people who loved us,” Trang says, “(and) they still care about us after all these years.”
Grinning, she shows off a photo of herself on the St. James girls’ basketball team. St. James School educated them, parishioners provided medical and dental care, clothing and household goods and gave their photographer father a job. Parishioners also invited them for holidays, taught them how to cook an American Thanksgiving dinner, gave them Christmas presents and always remembered their birthdays even after the family moved south after four Illinois winters to help their father’s health, Trang says.
“If not for (St. James), we wouldn’t be where we are today,” she says.
Tu Pham, a circuit court judge, was chosen by his siblings to publicly speak their thanks to the parish. They teased him before Mass about the “bangs all around his head” in the family photos taken back in the 70s.
“Dad was still perfecting his hair cutting skills,” Tu says with a smile, cringing just a little as he points to himself in a picture.
The boys’ girlish hair and clothing on their arrival is “one of our funny stories,” laughs Trang. “It confused the people who came to meet us.”
In his formal thanks to the parish, Tu shared that “what we experienced here always stayed with us,” adding that all his brothers and sisters had attended college and were successful in their careers.
The Pham family includes the five oldest children plus one who was born during their four years in Rockford and one later in Louisiana.
Tu concluded his remarks by saying that he sees the kindness shown to them by St. James parishioners as “an example of the human spirit — the goodness in people, the American spirit — embodying all that is good about America, and the Holy Spirit — carrying out the message of God.”
As St. James continues their tradition of welcome by assisting families who recently fled the country of Myanmar (formerly Burma), the Pham family shines out as an example of the good that can come from that spirit-filled, parish-based kindness.
Printed with permission from the Observer, newspaper for the Diocese of Rockford, Ill.
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