Standing Up After Saigon: The Triumphant Story of Hope, Determination, and Reinvention

In this incredible true story of familial love and triumph through adversity, Thuhang Tran and Sharon Orlopp document decades in the lives of Thuhang and her father, Chinh Tran. Thuhang was born in 1970 in Saigon, near the end of the Vietnam War. She contracted polio as a baby, and though her family sacrificed much to seek treatment, their efforts were halted by the fall of Saigon. Chinh was an air traffic controller in the South Vietnam Air Force at the time, and was lost in the evacuations from Saigon, separated from Thuhang and the rest of his family and presumed dead. This powerful memoir follows Thuhang and her father Chinh through their respective struggles, from Thuhang’s battle with polio and the impact of her father’s absence, to Chinh’s immigration to the United States and his desperate 15-year mission to be reunited with his family. Thuhang has remained hopeful and resilient through all the seemingly impossible hurdles she’s faced, and lives today to tell her story and inspire those around her to find strength through perseverance.