Minh Nguyet Bollinger

Minh Nguyet Bollinger passed away on August 28th, 2024. Born in Vietnam, she was the youngest of 16 children. While life in Vietnam was not always easy, little did she know how much her life would change when Sgt John Bollinger walked into the restaurant that she was working at. She jokingly said, look, my husband is here, pointing to John. That was all it took and they were in love. It wasn’t long before she was whisked away from her war-torn country, to live in sunny Orlando, Florida.

Being the wife of an Air Force man made her life an interesting one. She was fortunate to live in exotic places like Japan and Greece, as well as the beautiful states of California and Hawaii. Life took her just about everywhere, including traveling to Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines, as well as Okinawa. When she was home, Minh was known for her love of three things – cats, plants, and food.

She had a big heart when it came to cats…and racoons…and opossums, and anything else that looked hungry. She spent countless amounts of energy and money on feeding every stray cat she could find. A faithful Buddhist, she would leave offerings of fresh fruit outside the home, at the alters of her loved ones. But the racoons and opossums would steal the fruit! So she decided that she would make an extra plate for just for the furry critters. It was amazing because it was like the little bandits understood that those new plates were for them, and they were to leave the altar fruits alone. She loved her plants. Especially ones with flowers. The area surrounding their mobile home in California was filled with beautiful exotic fruits and flowers. She would get up every morning at 3:00am to water all of her plants, whether they needed to be watered or not. Her rose bushes and gardenias were the envy of the community.

Minh also loved to eat! And boy could she eat! She might have been tiny, but I have seen her put away more food than our whole family combined! She would eat 2lbs of crawfish all by herself, and then 30 minutes later would tell me that she was hungry. I learned that after I took her out to lunch on Sundays, that I needed to buy at least a couple of extra snacks so that she would have something to eat on the 20-minute ride home. Minh N. Bollinger is survived by her loving husband, John Bollinger, and her two daughters, Mong and Susan.

In lieu of flowers please donate to your local animal shelter.