Torn Apart by Tragedy : Relatives Struggle to Keep Family Together After Child Is Abandoned in Store

Of all the tragedies the Tran family has endured since the Communist takeover of South Vietnam--the loss of their printing business, their perilous escape by boat, months in crowded refugee camps and the struggle to overcome poverty in America--the worst may be yet to come.

Two Tran children were placed in foster care with strangers last week after their mother, who relatives say is mentally ill, abandoned one of them in a West Hills discount store. Despite tearful pleas from family members seeking custody of the children, a dependency court judge Thursday ordered 18-month-old Trinh and 5-month-old Melissa to remain in foster care pending a Nov. 2 hearing.

If the children are permanently removed from the family, their link with their ancestors will be severed, the worst fate imaginable for a Vietnamese family, cultural experts say.

“We have an expression about the importance of the family: ‘Chim co to; nguoi co tong’-- The bird has a nest; the human being has ancestors,” said Bay Van Vo, a Vietnamese social worker with Asian Rehabilitation Services in Los Angeles. “If these children are raised by strangers, it would hurt the family so much they probably would become crazy.”

The family faces a second misfortune stemming from the ordeal that began last Friday when Hang Tran left Trinh in a shopping cart at a Target store in the Fallbrook mall.

Hang Tran, 31, has been charged with two felony counts of child abandonment and faces a maximum sentence of three years in jail if convicted.

“My sister is mental--she needs help, not jail,” said Ha Tran, 41, of Long Beach, an unemployed electronics technician on welfare who is studying to be a hairdresser and wants custody of the children. “But no way strangers are going to raise our kids.”

“I don’t think anyone wants to see (Hang Tran) serve time,” said Detective Roland L’Heureux of the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley division. “But it’s a good thing this happened. She could have left her in a parking lot, and who knows what would have happened. This way, it takes care of the kids, and now mom can get some help.”

When detectives interviewed Hang Tran, all she could say was “V.C., V.C.,” an apparent reference to the Viet Cong, L’Heureux said.

A harrowing picture of life in the Tran household emerged from interviews this week with Hang Tran and her relatives, who spoke primarily through a Vietnamese interpreter hired by The Times.

Since late spring, eight people--Hang Tran, her mother, one of her sisters, her brother-in-law and four children--have pooled their limited resources and rented a cramped, three-bedroom bungalow on Enfield Avenue in Reseda for $900 a month.

Family members, who immigrated to the United States in stages after the fall of South Vietnam in 1975, are still struggling financially. Hang Tran and her two children are on welfare. Her 69-year-old mother, Huong Nguyen, lives on Social Security. Her brother-in-law, Duc Huynh, works as pastor of the Vietnamese congregation at the First Baptist Church of Reseda while he studies for a master’s degree in theology. His wife, Huong, 30, studies office administration at night and takes care of the couple’s 9-year-old girl and 2-year-old boy during the day.

But economic necessity was not the only factor behind the arrangement.

The family needed to hide Hang Tran from her alcoholic boyfriend, the father of the two girls, relatives said. And Hang Tran, who had long suffered from bouts of forgetfulness and disorientation, could not take care of herself or her two children alone.

Duc Huynh, the pastor, said he knew Hang Tran was mentally ill, but was unprepared for the disruption she wreaked on the household. Eager to spend some time alone with his family, he said he agreed to Hang Tran’s demands last Friday and dropped her and her children off in the morning at the shopping mall. He said he had done so before without major incident. This time was different.

Hang Tran was nowhere to be found when he returned at 6 p.m. In the meantime, Trinh had been found and turned over to the Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services.

Three hours later, Hang Tran telephoned from a supermarket near the mall, and Duc Huynh picked her up. Meanwhile, the family had learned of Trinh’s abandonment from neighbors who had been interviewed by police officers earlier that day.

Hang Tran was arrested after she came out of church services Sunday, and Melissa was whisked into protective custody.

Since then, “I cannot sleep; no one can sleep until we have the children,” said Hang Tran’s mother, Huong Nguyen.