Faith
+ a daughter’s love = 100 years
By Father Stephen Perzan
Special to the CS&T
America’s oldest Vietnamese immigrant may well be Joseph Chiet Doan
of St. Helena Parish in Philadelphia, who turned 100 this past Feb. 15.
The special event was marked the following day with a birthday Mass celebrated
in his honor by Msgr. Joseph Trinh, Pastor of St. Helena’s Church.
After Mass, a birthday cake with a large “100 year candle”
was brought into Joseph’s room. All those who had gathered for the
event sang “Happy Birthday” while the candle on the cake was
extinguished by Joseph’s 2-year-old great-granddaughter, Gabriella
Vu.
In addition to the cake, there was Vietnamese soup, as well as a large
batch of fried shrimp. Although Joseph could not partake in the sharing
of the food — he eats though a feeding tube — he was pleased
to know that his family was there with him.
Joseph came to America in 1988 as a refugee, with his daughter, Maria
Nguyen, and first settled in New Jersey with some family members. A year
later, he and his daughter moved to Philadelphia, and St. Helena’s
Parish.
Not long after the move, Joseph, who had been showing signs of deteriorating
health, became deathly ill.
The doctor who attended Joseph told Maria that her father would not see
many more days. He left her medicine to ease her father’s pain.
Maria knew there was more she needed to do for her father. She told him
that he should prepare himself to go to heaven, and she called in the
parish priest who anointed Joseph and heard his confession. That seemed
to be the perfect medicine. Immediately afterward, Joseph showed signs
of new life.
For the next year, Maria attended to her father, giving him the medicine
prescribed by the doctor, and praying for him daily. Almost a year to
the day, Joseph was able to get up from his sick bed. Over the next eight
years, he was able to attend Sunday and daily Mass with his daughter.
Then, in 1999, he fainted while attending a Church service and was carried
home to his bed.
Since that time, there have been many close calls for Joseph, who has
remained completely bedridden for the last six years, but with the loving
care of his daughter he has reached 100.
Perhaps that’s why Msgr. Trinh, who is a friend of the family, was
moved as he gave a special blessing to his oldest parishioner at the end
of the Mass.
In his homily, Msgr. Trinh noted the extraordinary care and devotion that
Maria has shown for her father. Every day she rises at 5:30 a.m. After
tending to her personal needs, she spends a half-hour in prayer with her
father before going off to 6:30 a.m. Mass at St. Helena.
When she returns from Mass, Maria prepares a meal that must be fed to
her father through a feeding tub, and makes sure that all his needs are
met and that his bed is made anew.
“If I go out, I leave him in the care of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,”
Maria said. “I know God loves him very much. And we show our love
for God by praying together every day.
“My father comes from a holy family, with many generations of being
Catholic,” she said. “Some family members have devoted themselves
to religious and priestly life. I am happy that God has blessed me with
such a good father, and I am happy, yes, happy to take care of him, and
I have asked Jesus to keep him here to celebrate more birthdays with me.”
It is near midnight when Maria finishes the evening duties of changing
and caring for her father. Yet she ends the day the way she began it —
in prayer at her father’s bedside, giving thanks to God.
Father Stephen Perzan is the parochial vicar at St. Helena, in Philadelphia.