After 24 years, Tuyet Doan Barnes was reunited with her sponsor family, Rev. Theodore and Nancy Grant of Hicksville, at last. She currently lives in Pensacola, FL with her husband, Rick. Photo by Victoria A. Caruso

When Tuyet Doan Barnes first came to the United States with her parents in 1975, the 15-year-old Vietnamese refugee had just three small bags filled with her belongings and the clothes on her back.

Soon after their arrival, the Rev. Theodore and Nancy Grant of Hicksville took in the Doan family. Eight months and a great deal of community support later, the family moved into their own Hicksville home. But three years later, Barnes found herself being relocated once again, this time to Florida.

Although they have kept in touch through written correspondence and telephone calls, Barnes and the Grants had not seen one another in 24 years. That all changed last week when Barnes and her husband, Rick, drove up from Florida to spend a week with the family that gave her a place to call home so many years ago.

"This is as close to home as I've got," said Barnes during an emotional interview last week at the Grant home in Hicksville. "I have always considered New York my home and thought it was important to come back. How could you forget the people that reached out and helped you?"

In 1975, the Doans, in fear of Communist rule, fled their home in Vung Tau, a small town in South Vietnam. They embarked on a voyage to the United States by sea in a small fishing boat. According to Barnes, the family had no idea where they were going to end up.

"When the country fell apart, we were invited to get on the boat," said Barnes. "We did not know where we were going. All we knew was that we didn't want to be [in Vietnam]. It must have been days, but you lost track of time." They were finally rescued by a Unites States Navy ship and taken to Camp Pendelton in California.

At that time, Barnes said the only way refugees were allowed to remain in the United States was to be taken in by a family. Soon after, the Doans were sponsored by Redeemer Lutheran Church and moved into the Grant home. The church enrolled Barnes at St. Ignatius Catholic School and helped her parents find jobs at a nearby factory. When it was time for the Doans to move into their own home, the community worked together to do minor repairs and painting. Hicksville-based Montana Real Estate helped find them a home.

Barnes spoke very little English when she first came to the United States. Being unable to fully communicate led to Barnes' birth date being incorrectly printed on her immigrant paperwork. "I was born in 1959," she said. "They have it written as 1961. So when people ask me my age, I ask them which one they want."

Fortunately, Barnes was able to pick up the language quickly and before long was acting as an intermediary between her parents and anyone they needed to communicate with. Despite the language barrier, the Doans were extremely self-sufficient and independent. "They integrated themselves and they participated," said Nancy Grant, a social worker at the Hicksville Medical Center.

Rev. Grant, retired pastor of Redeemer Lutheran and current chaplain of the Hicksville Fire Department, agreed, saying, "I remember offering to drive Tuyet's father to work on Duffy Avenue, but he would walk. They were very self-sufficient."

In 1978, when Barnes was a student at Hicksville Middle School, the Doans moved to Pensacola where there was a larger Asian population and milder winters. Barnes said her parents later moved on to Texas and remained there until they passed away several years ago.

For Barnes, whose Vietnamese name means "snow," the United States wasn't just socially different, but religiously different as well. "In Vietnam, our faith was divided between Catholic and Buddhist," she said. "We were Catholic and the church that took us in was Lutheran. It showed me that with a common goal, the two can work together."

Barnes was granted her United States citizenship in 1986 and goes by the American name "Ann." She has remained in Pensacola since moving there with her family. In the beginning, she worked as a translator and teacher's aide for a Florida school district and has been working for more than 20 years in the field of cosmetology. She has four children from a previous marriage and is also a grandmother of four. Barnes has been married to Rick, a Pensacola native who is a retired civil service worker and owner of a small maintenance business, for two years. They enjoy travelling and plan to one day visit Vietnam.

Despite all the years that passed between them, Nancy Grant said it was like Barnes had never left. "It was absolutely wonderful," she said. "We were so happy. We took her to places to meet friends and volunteers who helped her family when they got here. We talked and talked and reminisced. It was like she never left."

Both the Barnes and the Grants agreed that the reunion was long overdue and have promised it won't be another two decades before they see one another again. 'We talked about going to Florida," said Nancy Grant. "We will definitely be planning something."