Thuy Rocco, author of “The Last Surviving Child: A Memoir”

by Monica Hoel

Nashville native Thuy Nguyen Rocco had never travelled the world until she came to Emory & Henry; and yet, she spent her first days in this world as an international refugee.

Thuy was born in Vietnam in 1980. Her family had helped the U.S. Army during the Vietnam war, so when the United States left it became crucial for people like Thuy’s family to leave the country. “We were considered traitors, so it would have been a death sentence to stay in Vietnam.”

But leaving wasn’t easy. Those wishing to leave had to know the right connections, they had to have money, and they had to avoid imprisonment and death.

Thuy’s family found an opportunity to leave, by boat, but they had a particularly difficult decision to make. Thuy’s mom was pregnant, with her, and couldn’t possibly make the difficult trip by boat. Her father didn’t want to leave part of the family behind, but he also didn’t want to miss the chance to get even part of his family to safety. So, Thuy’s father, her two brothers, her sister, and an aunt who spoke English left by boat to escape the death-sentence of staying in their home country.

But the boat capsized. Thuy’s father, aunt and all siblings died. Thuy’s mother was faced with having to deal with her grief while also giving birth to a child in a country where she knew they weren’t safe.

Thuy has written a book at this experience called The Last Surviving Child: A Memoir that tells of the harrowing experiences of her early childhood and her mother’s commitment to getting them to safer shores. “It took my mother seven tries to escape Vietnam, and she was imprisoned more than once for attempting to leave.”

Thuy remembers part of the escape journey – being terrified of getting caught and having to hide under mounds of fish on a fishing ferry. “I was only 1 or 2 years old. And sometimes we got caught trying to escape because I would cry.”

She also remembers being in the refugee camps along the way – where they didn’t have enough to eat, drank dirty water, and slept so close together with other families that illnesses passed easily and quickly. “A lot of kids didn’t survive the refugee camps.”

It was more than 30 years after these experiences that Thuy summoned the courage to write about what she and her mother had survived. She hoped that telling her story would provide an avenue of understanding for those who had never experienced such hardship; and she hoped it would offer strength and reassurance to others who had.

“When the book first came out, it got a lot of media attention and I got to do a lot of prestigious, high profile events; but my favorite moments were one-on-one conversations with young immigrants and refugees who said, ‘I know your story because I lived it. Thank you for sharing your story so I wouldn’t feel like the only one in the world.” She now leads workshops to help other refugees write their own stories.

Thuy encourages us to use local booksellers to order her book The Last Surviving Child: A Memoir. You can enjoy an extended conversation with Thuy on the Duck Pond Wall podcast, and her on-campus Lyceum talk will be at 7:30 pm on March 14, 2022.

Open gallery

Thuy Nguyen Rocco
E&H Class of 2002
“Author, consultant, activist, polyglot, martial artist, iron cook, life-long learner, teacher, storyteller”

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<div class="lw_news_image"><span class="lw_item_thumb"><a href="/live/news/3125-cornelius-barber-serving-as-alumni-office-intern"><picture class="lw_image"> <source type="image/webp" srcset="/live/image/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/11,74,601,665/14528_3E36F3C1-6475-4963-B6CD-2677C04D96A3.rev.1694179644.JPG 1x"/> <source type="image/webp" srcset="/live/image/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/11,74,601,665/14528_3E36F3C1-6475-4963-B6CD-2677C04D96A3.rev.1694179644.JPG 1x"/> <source type="image/jpeg" srcset="/live/image/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/11,74,601,665/14528_3E36F3C1-6475-4963-B6CD-2677C04D96A3.rev.1694179644.JPG 1x"/> <img src="/live/image/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/11,74,601,665/14528_3E36F3C1-6475-4963-B6CD-2677C04D96A3.rev.1694179644.JPG" alt="two gentlemen talking in an art store." width="345" height="225" data-max-w="590" data-max-h="591" loading="lazy"/> </picture> </a></span></div><div class="lw_widget_text"><h4 class="lw_news_headline"><a href="/live/news/3125-cornelius-barber-serving-as-alumni-office-intern">Cornelius Barber Serving as Alumni Office Intern</a></h4><div class="lw_news_summary"><p> Cornelius thought an internship in the E&H Alumni Office would be a great way to get experience and meet alumni. He was right.</p><a href="/live/news/3125-cornelius-barber-serving-as-alumni-office-intern" class="link-with-arrow gold">Keep reading</a></div></div>
<div class="lw_news_image"><span class="lw_item_thumb"><a href="/live/news/2782-dr-rosemary-gray-honored-with-2023-carl-and-ruth"><picture class="lw_image"> <source type="image/webp" srcset="/live/image/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/0,18,200,218/13443_Rosemary_Gray.rev.1677542353.webp 1x"/> <source type="image/jpeg" srcset="/live/image/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/0,18,200,218/13443_Rosemary_Gray.rev.1677542353.jpg 1x"/> <img src="/live/image/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/0,18,200,218/13443_Rosemary_Gray.rev.1677542353.jpg" alt="Smiling woman" width="345" height="225" data-max-w="200" data-max-h="200" loading="lazy"/> </picture> </a></span></div><div class="lw_widget_text"><h4 class="lw_news_headline"><a href="/live/news/2782-dr-rosemary-gray-honored-with-2023-carl-and-ruth">Dr. Rosemary Gray Honored with 2023 Carl and Ruth Looney Humanitarian Award</a></h4><div class="lw_news_summary"><p>This award is given to an individual who has demonstrated special service in a volunteer or professional manner, has made unusual personal sacrifice, or has shown a long and dedicated commitment to service that benefits humanity. <em>This award is named for Rev. Carl and Ruth Looney and their family who excelled at using humble means to achieve amazing service.</em></p><a href="/live/news/2782-dr-rosemary-gray-honored-with-2023-carl-and-ruth" class="link-with-arrow gold">Keep reading</a></div></div>
<div class="lw_news_image"><span class="lw_item_thumb"><a href="/live/news/2784-ali-singleton-reilly-honored-by-eamph-alumni"><picture class="lw_image"> <source type="image/webp" srcset="/live/image/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/0,441,1774,2213/13457_Ali_Reilly.rev.1677706125.webp 1x, /live/image/scale/2x/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/0,441,1774,2213/13457_Ali_Reilly.rev.1677706125.webp 2x, /live/image/scale/3x/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/0,441,1774,2213/13457_Ali_Reilly.rev.1677706125.webp 3x"/> <source type="image/jpeg" srcset="/live/image/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/0,441,1774,2213/13457_Ali_Reilly.rev.1677706125.jpg 1x, /live/image/scale/2x/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/0,441,1774,2213/13457_Ali_Reilly.rev.1677706125.jpg 2x, /live/image/scale/3x/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/0,441,1774,2213/13457_Ali_Reilly.rev.1677706125.jpg 3x"/> <img src="/live/image/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/0,441,1774,2213/13457_Ali_Reilly.rev.1677706125.jpg" alt="Ali Singleton Reilly Emory & Henry Class of 2018" width="345" height="225" srcset="/live/image/scale/2x/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/0,441,1774,2213/13457_Ali_Reilly.rev.1677706125.jpg 2x, /live/image/scale/3x/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/0,441,1774,2213/13457_Ali_Reilly.rev.1677706125.jpg 3x" data-max-w="1774" data-max-h="1772" loading="lazy"/> </picture> </a></span></div><div class="lw_widget_text"><h4 class="lw_news_headline"><a href="/live/news/2784-ali-singleton-reilly-honored-by-eamph-alumni">Ali Singleton Reilly Honored by E&H Alumni Association as Young Alumna of the Year</a></h4><div class="lw_news_summary"><p> Ali Singleton Reilly is the 2023 recipient of the A.L. Mitchell Young Alumnus Award. The award is given to someone who has made unique and outstanding accomplishments during the first 15 years after graduation. <em>The award bears the name of A.L. Mitchell, E&H class of 1946, who began his employment at Emory & Henry while still a very young alumnus and served students faithfully for 38 years.</em></p><a href="/live/news/2784-ali-singleton-reilly-honored-by-eamph-alumni" class="link-with-arrow gold">Keep reading</a></div></div>

Thuy Rocco, author of “The Last Surviving Child: A Memoir”

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