Vietnamese Kin Mourn Dead Father

Hong Van Le had made a living in Vietnam on boats. He and his young family fled their native country in 1980 to seek freedom in America by boat. And after years of being unable to find work and wrench his family out of poverty, the Garden Grove father of four turned once again to the sea and a boat.

On his first American fishing trip this week, Le and another man died on the boat.

Both men were asphyxiated while sleeping, possibly because of carbon monoxide fumes from the vessel’s engine.

And now, the Le family’s financial future looks more uncertain than ever.

“He had tried to get a job, to stay off welfare, get off public assistance,” said Danny Le, of Kennewick, Wash., uncle of the fisherman’s widow, Tam Le, at her house Friday. “Now they really worry about money for the family.”

$900-a-Month Rent

Tam Le and her children--daughters, Thuy, 12, Thrinh, 9, and Phuong, 7, and son, John, 5--live in a sparsely furnished three-bedroom house near a row of Vietnamese businesses in Garden Grove. The uncle did not know how much welfare money is left after the $900-a-month rent is paid.

The pastor of the Les’ church, the Vietnamese Presbyterian Church of Orange County, said some members of his congregation are trying to aid the family. Also, a former teacher of two Le girls reportedly donated several hundred dollars to help with funeral costs.

Pastor Hai Nguyen said he plans to speak with the congregation this weekend to find out whether they want to establish a fund for the family, he said. A sister church plans to do the same.

The bodies of Hong Van Le, 33, and Luong Van Vo, 32, were found aboard the 41-foot fishing boat Gold Rose on Tuesday, as it was drifting in heavy seas about 100 miles west of Oceanside.

The Gold Rose and a companion boat, the Saint-Ann, had gone in search of rock cod in the waters southwest of San Nicholas Island.

Navy Was Notified

But when the men aboard the Saint-Ann were unable to rouse Le and Vo on Tuesday, they notified the Navy on San Nicholas Island, which in turned called the Coast Guard.

Danny Le, who came to the United States in 1975, said he and his church, the First Lutheran Church of Kennewick, Wash., sponsored his niece’s family when they arrived from Indochina in 1980. Hong Van Le and his family stayed for a while in Washington to try to learn English and job skills, Danny Le said. But Hong Van Le, who had been a fisherman in Vietnam, was drawn to Southern California. Vo, who had lived near Hong Van Le in Vietnam, was in Orange County, working as a fisherman, and Hong Van Le relocated his family in 1981 to possibly return to his former craft.

“I tried to tell him, it’s a difficult job, a hard job. But he said he liked it, that’s why he moved out here,” Danny Le said.

Still, Tam Le was scared of the danger of the sea and did not want her husband to fish, he said. Hong Van Le tried to find other work--he was a dishwasher only briefly--but poor English and headache problems kept him from finding steady work, he said.

“He worked hard around Orange County. He had odd jobs but he couldn’t make any money,” said Thach Nguyen (no relation to the church pastor), who co-owned the Gold Rose with Vo.

Hong Van Le hated being on welfare and yearned to provide for his family, Danny Le said.

When he was offered a chance to be a crewman aboard the fishing board Vo and Nguyen had just refurbished, he wanted to take it.

“His wife told him many times, don’t,” Danny Le said. “But this last time he told her, let me try it and see what happens.”

Now, Danny Le said, in addition to coping with the loss of a husband and father, the Le family is in dreadful financial straits.

Area churches say they want to help.

Pastor Nguyen said the Le family joined the Vietnamese Presbyterian Church about five years ago, and the three daughters sing in the choir.

“They are very close to us, as a matter fact, the little kid (John) called my mom his grandmom,” said the pastor’s son, Nam Nguyen.

Dr. Rita Lou Clark, associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Garden Grove, a “sister church” to the Vietnamese church, said her congregation wants to offer money and support “as a sign of Christian love.”

One of the women’s groups “has had a concern to help the Vietnamese families. We went down there yesterday (Thursday) to talk with them,” she said.

The widow “was very appreciative, she was very moved . . . to tears, when we told her we would help her.”

Clark said she will discuss plans to aid the family in church Sunday. They must be careful that any financial support does not get subtracted from the Le family’s welfare income, she said.

However, the widow’s uncle, speaking for the family, said he did not know about prospects for help from the church. On Friday, family and friends gathered at the house, and Danny Le said many of them plan to help with funeral arrangements and costs.

Tam Le and her children are worried, he said. “They don’t know anything about their future.”

Times Staff Writers David Reyes and Lonn Johnston contributed to this story.