Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s mean-spirited government makes it easy to forget her province’s long history of kindness to newcomers. I’m thinking back to 1979, when Alberta welcomed the first of thousands of refugees who fled Vietnam by boat in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Among them was five-year-old Nhung Tran, who stepped off the plane with her widowed mother and five siblings. They had flown to Edmonton from a refugee camp in Malaysia with no money and few possessions.

When they arrived, news cameras flashed at the airport as a young Alberta girl broke from the welcoming crowd to present Tran with a doll. Tran grinned and hugged it to her chest. It was her only toy and for as long as she lived she cherished it for the kindness and generosity it represented. Tran kept the doll as she made her way through high school and eventually medical school, where she became a family physician and, later, a children’s book author. 

The Tran family was sponsored by members of Our Lady of Mercy Church in Enoch, Alta. They furnished a home for the Trans, helped the children settle in school and drove them to appointments. When the family was in a position to buy a home, one of the sponsors even co-signed the mortgage. The families stayed in touch over the years, gathering to celebrate holidays and special occasions, including Tran’s marriage to Grant........

© National Observer