Dan Nguyen, of Pocasset and formerly of Montpelier, Vermont, passed away on February 5th, 2021. Dan was born in the small village of Thanh Ra in North Vietnam on May 1, 1937. She was the fourth of five children. Her family fled to South Vietnam in 1954 at the end of the Indochina War. Serendipitously, it was in South Vietnam where she met her future husband, Tiep Nguyen who had also been displaced by the war.

After getting married in 1955, Dan and Tiep eventually settled in a small village in the southernmost part of Vietnam. It is here where they started their own family which included 11 children: seven girls and four boys. Sadly, one of their daughters passed away when she was three years old. The family lived happily that quaint village for many years until the communist party took over the South in 1975. The economic and political situation at that time was unstable so they decided to leave Vietnam in hopes that their children would have a chance at a brighter future.

In December 1979, after extensive planning, they made the dangerous attempt to escape Vietnam. Dan made it to a refugee camp in Thailand with seven of her children and her eldest daughter’s family. Unfortunately, her husband and two young daughters were not as lucky. They got separated, and were not able to make it out of South Vietnam.

Thanks to the generosity of two churches in Montpelier, Vermont who wanted to sponsor a family of refugees, Dan and her family were able to move and settle there. She worked at National Life and at Sheraton Hotel for 16 years. After retirement, she did a lot of volunteering through her church and traveled extensively.

In 2018, she had a chance to relocate to Cape Cod Senior Residences where she was able to relax and live out the last years of her life. As was her tendency throughout her life, she made many close friends who she cared about and viewed as extended family.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in Dan’s memory may be made to Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.