Mrs. Vinh Thi Tran passed away peacefully at home in Somerville on November 18, 2019 at the age of 100-and-a-half years old. Born in May 1919, she belonged to the fourth generation of her Vietnamese family living in Cambodia. She endured conflicts and wars, the pain of losing her husband, and raising six children in the ups and downs of life. In 1970 during Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia, she and her children were expelled to Vietnam by Gen. Lon Nol’s government. In Vietnam she served as the director of a private orphanage for several years in Saigon. She also lived with relentless hardship through five years of war, the 1975 fall of the South Vietnamese government and the aftermath. In 1993 through the UN Orderly Departure program, she was able to immigrate to the United States and strived to adjust to a new comfortable life in a strange land. She had many supportive Vietnamese and American friends. She worked hard to learn English and passed her US Citizenship test at the age of 80 and was interviewed by the Boston Sunday Globe (7/14/1999). She was fluent in Vietnamese and Cambodian and able to make herself understood in French and in English. She loved to travel with friends and was a long-time meditation practitioner at the Bo De Meditation Center in Braintree.
Mrs. Tran was the wife of the late Hi Thanh Tran, MD. She is survived by her six children and their families: Tho Tran and his wife Nhu Pham of Philadelphia PA, Van-Loc Doran and her husband James of Somerville MA, Linda Tran of Gainesville VA, Hap Long Tran and his wife My Luong Tran of San Diego CA, Ben Bango Tran and his wife Xuan Lan Phan of Chicago IL, and Kinh Tran of Somerville MA. She was the cherished grandmother of seven grandchildren and many great grandchildren.
Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend Calling Hours with Buddhist service in the George L. Doherty Funeral Home, 855 Broadway (Powder House Sq.) Somerville on Sunday, November 24th from 2:00pm - 5:00pm. Funeral Service and internment will be private. By Mrs. Tran’s wishes, her children and family do not accept flowers, wreaths, food or any kind of donations for the funeral. People who wish to donate could send their donation checks made to the Bo De Meditation Center, In Memory of Vinh T. Tran, 773 Granite Street, Braintree, MA 02184.
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