Luu Hong: A Second Mother to Me

I'll never forget the very first time I met this beautiful lady.  The year was 1995 at a nightclub called the Majestic in Huntington Beach, California.  At the time I was singing at a place called the Caravelle in Anaheim.  On that certain night sometime in February there was a night put together for another fellow Eurasian singer by the name of Cong Hung, a handsome fella who also sang in French.  I can't recall who was the emcee for the show that night.  It had to be one of the two, either it was Quoc Thai or Cong Thanh.  When I walked into the club, my eyes instantly were drawn to Luu Hong who was also present that night.

There she was, the same lady who sang Pho Dem, Cafe Dang, Tu Do Em Buon, Chuyen Hen Ho, and countless other songs.  I walked back and forth just to get her attention.  I didn't know who the emcee was.  I asked around and finally I saw Quoc Thai.  He asked me in English, "Excuse me, sir, may I help you?"  I answered back in Vietnamese and we both started to giggle.  That was when I noticed Luu Hong had overheard our conversation.  I turned to her and asked her, "Has this ever happened to you?  Do you get mistaken as an Anglo-American?"  She smiled and said, "When I was a little girl in Vietnam, yes, I did, all the time.  Now that I'm older, most Vietnamese people know who Luu Hong is, I don't get that anymore."  She then proceeded to ask who I was and invited me to sit next to her.  I couldn't resist this opportunity.


I don't remember what happened next.  But before I knew it, I think it was Cong Thanh who introduced me on stage as Luu Hong's son.  I can't tell you how many people thought he was serious that night.  For a while there, everyone thought I really was her son.

In the years that followed, wherever I performed, people would ask me if Luu Hong was indeed my mother. Well, she did treat me as if I was her son.  We became rather close.  On one occasion, I remember going to Phuoc Loc Tho, otherwise known as Asian Garden Mall, with Luu Hong and another fellow singer named Dai Trang.  I remember how the owner of Jean's jewelry store had asked me if they were my mother and sister.


By the time I had reached prominence in the singing business, Luu Hong had pretty much retired.  She had experienced some sort of injury while singing that led to her decision to retire.  Sometime in the year 2000, I did run into her at an event put together by the former South Vietnamese officers' association.  I remember how she came on stage, chimed in a few words to the song, Nang Xuan, and the audience just went wild.  In recent years, the last time I heard from her was about 3 years ago when both her mother and oldest son had passed away.  Luu Hong was still living in El Toro, California.  I truly miss her.  She really is like a second mother to me.