Hoi Vo Nguyen

Hoi was born to Vo Nhu Hien & Vo Nguyen Thi Hat on June 16, 1951, in Tam Quan, Binh Dinh, a southern Vietnamese town. She was the fifth born of eight children. She described a simple way of life in her early childhood, being brought up in a large family within a close-knit community.

Hoi became trained as a typist and worked as a secretary to help provide for her family. Her sisters describe her as an excellent student who aspired to be a nurse. In early adulthood, she dealt with the turmoil of a war-torn country as the Vietnam War was peaking. She started to help out at her family’s cafe and hardware store in Qui Nhon. In 1972, she met Trinh Nguyen at the cafe and he would return to see her monthly while he served in the military at a nearby base. They fell in love and were engaged after two years.

Her family was forced to flee to Cam Ranh Bay in 1974, and eventually Saigon. Their forced retreat separated Hoi and Trinh and stripped Hoi’s family of everything they had as the Northern Vietnamese Army made their way into the South. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, Hoi was eventually reunited with Trinh and they were married on December 31, 1976. After the war concluded and through the chaos, she assisted her husband in starting a medical clinic. Her generosity and humanitarian efforts with the clinic helped improve many lives.

She became a mother in November 1977 and had her first daughter in June 1980. Pregnant with their third child and in search of a better life for her family, Hoi, Trinh and their two toddlers immigrated to Chicago in May 1982. They had very little. Months after she came to the United States, Hoi gave birth to her third child in Chicago. She became a seamstress for a large fashion company, enabling her to provide for her family and support her husband as he achieved his educational goals. They moved to Mid-Michigan in 1989, where she gave birth to her youngest daughter, and also worked as a tailor at Jacobson’s Department store in East Lansing, Michigan, until 1994.

Her priority was always caring for her family, including helping to provide for those who remained in Vietnam, even when she had little. She wore many hats over the years but her true calling was being a mother and grandmother. She raised four children and helped her children raise ten grandchildren. She enjoyed cooking and taking care of her family and friends, who meant everything to her. She also enjoyed going for walks, gardening, traveling and playing cards with her friends. Hoi was one of the kindest souls and will be dearly missed by many.

Hoi is survived by her husband, Dr. Trinh Nguyen; son, Dr. KhangHy Nguyen (two sons Mason and Hudson); daughter, Touyen Nguyen (husband Kevin and four sons Logan, Colin, Graham and Evan); Dr. Tolam Nguyen Cote (husband Forrest and two sons Harper and Emmett and daughter Hannah); Catherine Gerrish (husband Chad and son Archie); six sisters (Vo Thi Phung, Vo Thi Tán, Vo Thi Tàn, Vo Thi Dam, Vo Thi Trinh, & Vo Thi Tuyet); and many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents & brother, Vo Honh Nghinh.

Visitation will be on July 22, 2022, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Gorsline Runciman Funeral Home (1730 E Grand River Ave, East Lansing, MI 48823). Funeral Mass will be celebrated on July 23, 2022, at 11 a.m. at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish (955 Alton Rd, East Lansing, MI 48823). A luncheon will follow burial at Father Mac Hall within St. Thomas Aquinas Parish.