Thu Que Hua's Obituary
Thu Que Hua was born to Phat Da Hua and Xuan-Mai Thi Tran on August 16th, 1931, in the Vietnamese province of Tra Vinh. In his youth, he enjoyed playing soccer, listening to the radio and was once awarded a dictionary for his good grades. After graduating from high school, he earned a place to attend military school in France; the experience instilled in him a lifelong love for traveling. Later, upon returning to Vietnam, he launched a successful business career in import-export during the Vietnam War (1955-1975) with his brother-in-law, Bao Van Ngo. He married Toan Thi Ngo in 1957. The couple met through Thu’s aunt (known in the family as ‘Bà Bảy’). She and Toan’s mother were friends since they both regularly visited their respective husband’s graves at Mac Dinh Chi cemetery in Saigon. As aunties and mothers often do, then and now, is to play matchmaker. In this case, they succeeded. Thu won over his wife partly with hot pink roses, partly with his European flair having lived in France. After Saigon fell in 1975, what was a business partnership between Thu and Bao also became a joint effort to escape Vietnam. They were captured on the first attempt and sent to re-education camp, where conditions would be both psychologically and physically treacherous. His stubbornness won the day on the second try. He walked to Thailand on foot, eventually making his way to a refugee camp in Malaysia. He rejoined his family in 1978 and retrained as a machinist for his new life in America. Then in 1987, Thu left Texas for California and forged a new career as a goldsmith, making jewelry instead of machine parts. In the family, he was called ‘Xíu’, which is the Chinese word for autumn, the meaning of his name in Vietnamese. He was also known among friends and family as someone who would go out of his way to do what he thought would make others happy, whether it be casting a gold tongue for a cousin’s Phoenix statue, hopping on a bus from Los Angeles to Dallas to surprise the family, or driving his daughter to the local 7-Eleven in a snow storm, so that she could buy her favorite chocolate bar. He is survived by his partner, Toanngo Hua; four children: Trang (Thang) Le; Trung (Dao) Hua; Tam (Long) Tran; and Thao (John) Rowley; seven grandchildren: Alex Hua; Tony Hua; Christina (Jimmy) Vo; Robert Le; Richard Le; Khoi Tran; and Minh Tran; and two great-grandchildren: Ethan Vo and Tiffany Vo. Family will receive friends in the Memorial Chapel of Restland Funeral Home at 9:30AM on Saturday, June 15, 2019. Funeral services will begin at 10:30AM, also in Memorial Chapel.
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