Lucia De Truong

De Truong was born on June 28, 1929 in the year of the Snake which presents a personality of charming and caring and sweet talking. As the 8th child of a big family of 12 children of a sweet couple of Truong Ba Nhan and Le thi Nhiem, De Truong always was a helping hand for her other alive 7 brothers and 3 sister. She finished her 5th grade at Nguyen Dinh Chieu elementary as in 1929 the highest education for a girl is 5th grade. Most of the female in that era as the old custom dictated would not be allowed go for further education beyond the elementary especially in third world country like Vietnam. As the fate was put upon her, De Truong had lived a much fulfilled life to its utmost meaning to be a comfort shoulder for someone to lean on when life treated them badly. For that big heart God has given to her, De Truong had always reached out and touched someone’s life with care and love with no boundery or limitation. With her great heart De Truong decided to take the right path to help others. She entered nursing career in 1950 at the age of 21.

She dedicated her life as a nurse who patiently worked with disabled children on the mobile hospital of HOPE ship which traveled the world to help unfortunate children in different countries. She had worked in different children hospital before she landed her last work at Hope mobile hospital. De Truong has put all her heart and devoted her time and energy to take care of special and disabled children from 1950 to 1962. She had to leave the job she loved deeply to take care of her siblings and her parents. Every day she ran errands for any member in the family who in needs of her attention. Despite her daily busy schedule, De Truong had always made time for her two beloved younger sister. Pauline Xuan and Canh Truong. She had always made sure that they were well taken care of with love. She always tried to protected them the harshness of life coming to their ways and made sure they were always feel secured with her presence and her protection. The early 70’s, De Truong was diagnosed with a rare disease resembled with leukemia after eating a shellfish during her vacation in Nhatrang with her younger sister’s family, Xuan Truong. As a brave and determined woman, she fought back the disease with all the medicines she could take from Western medicine to traditional Chinese medicine. As a reward of her hard fighting, finally De Truong had won the battle after God gave her a miracle to recover from that disease. She continued to spread her unconditional love to all people who encountered her life. Life had changed in 1975 when South Vietnam fell into the communist’s hand of North Vietnamese. De Truong stayed back in Vietnam to take care of her old mother. Life became harder for her after several times trying to escape Vietnam after her mother passed away in 1978. De Truong had been imprisoned for her failure of escaped in the communist’s jail and being tortured through daily brainwash so she had to committed her crime of leaving the country. Finally, God gave her another chance to live , De Truong had reunited with her younger sister, Xuan Truong and her family in 1989. It was the same time she found out that she had inherited the same disease which killed her parents and almost her siblings- diabetes. She had been struggling to keep her disease under control since. Hardly to say goodbye to her older sister, Yen Truong , who passed away in Paris in 1999, De truong devoted all her time and love to her other two younger sisters. After Xuan Truong passed away in 2001 by diabetes, De Truong moved in with Annie Nguyen, her oldest niece whom she loved a lot. She had been taken care by her niece with the same attention she had given all to others when she was young. De Truong had lived her full life as a dedicated loving person until December 2010 she had to begin to fight her last battle to win over the disease that torture her more than two decades. Time had come for she to come home to God’s house, her loving heart stopped beating and she left the battle peacefully on early morning of Saturday February 12, 2011. She had come home to reunited with her beloved younger sister, Xuan Truong for eternally, never have to say goodbye again.

Arrangements under the direction of Lima Family Milpitas-Fremont Mortuary, Fremont, CA.