49 years ago today, Saigon fell.

22 years ago today, my ex and I had dinner with a Vietnamese family. While in HCM city, staying in the the Saigon district, we met a young college aged woman who invited us to dinner with her and her father. He was a communist official by day and a landlord by night. She was studying to be a hotel manager. On the wall, in the ancestor shrine, the photo of grandma was in her uniform as a member of the National Liberation Front. It was never stated explicitly but I believed she was killed during the American War, as they refer to it.

They were thrilled we were there to adopt a Vietnamese boy, we were very honored guests and everyone I spoke with considered it a good thing that I had served the US, even if long after that time.

A few days later we toured the Presidential palace and I remember seeing where the helicopters took off with the last evacuations…

This has always a strange day to me since that evening.