Published: July 02, 2009 09:14 pm      

Long road ‘home’

Faith, determination make new citizen a winner

DUNCAN — Among those celebrating the Fourth of July on Saturday, there will be none prouder than Tommy Nguyen, who became an American citizen on April 24.

He will be celebrating at the home of his “adoptive” parents, Ken and Lorane Litchford, in Duncan, who live near enough Halliburton Stadium where the fireworks display will be held that they can enjoy the display from their yard.

It was a long and arduous journey that brought Nguyen (pronounced “win”) to Duncan from where he was born in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 27 years ago — a journey made even more difficult by the fact that Nguyen has been almost totally blind since the age of 4.

Nguyen’s blindness was probably caused by a combination of malnutrition and glaucoma.

“When you have money, you can go to the doctor. When you don’t have money, there’s no doctor,” Nguyen said. “When I was 8, we went to Saigon and stayed for a while, but by then, there was nothing the doctors could do.”

A year and a half spent in the Philippines allowed Nguyen to learn English, but he was too shy to speak it for some years. English comes easily to him now, and he has no trouble communicating. Two sisters and a brother remain in Vietnam, but Nguyen’s mother and a brother moved to Lawton in 1992, when Nguyen was 11.

Nguyen attended school in Lawton and finished high school in Muskogee with the aid of Braille materials and books on tape, then decided to enroll at Cameron University, where he met Daniel Litchford. The two young men instantly became friends, and Litchford’s family members opened their arms to Nguyen. The two young men lived with Litchford’s parents in Duncan for a time until Daniel got married recently and moved to Lawton. Nguyen still lives with the Litchfords and visits with his “extended” family — Litchford’s grandparents, Kenneth and Loretta McCalment.

Nguyen finished his education through Lions World Services for the Blind in Little Rock, Ark.

He began his quest for American citizenship two years ago, but with the pressures of finishing his degree, the process sort of fell by the wayside for a while, Nguyen said.

“I wanted to do it for a long time. It was something my mother always wanted for me. I also want to be able to go back to Vietnam and visit my family without having to worry about it. As an American, I won’t have problems now getting into and out of the country,” he said.

Nguyen’s mother died of bone cancer on Thanksgiving Day of 1997, without realizing her dream of seeing her son take his oath of citizenship.

Last year, Nguyen began the lengthy process toward citizenship in earnest. The deadline for submitting his paperwork was Oct. 31, but because he mailed in the documents only two days before the deadline, they did not arrive in Oklahoma City in time and he thought he had lost his chance.

“It was an amazing thing. Two weeks later, they called me and told me to come up there for fingerprinting and such. I went up two days after Thanksgiving and took care of that, then went back to take the test on Feb. 26.

“We had to memorize 100 questions and 100 answers, but they asked each of us to answer only six of them. We just didn’t know which six they would ask,” he said.

Among the questions Nguyen was asked was to name three of the 13 original colonies and to name the current president.

On April 24, with his adoptive parents by his side, Nguyen proudly took the oath of citizenship.

“We went out to eat dinner and had a party. Daniel’s grandparents made a cake. It was wonderful,” he said.

With his degree and citizenship papers in hand, the sky is the limit for Nguyen. He sings, plays piano, drums, acoustic and electric guitar, and keyboard and has composed more than 50 songs. He attends Immanuel Baptist Church with the Litchfords, but also plays piano at different churches, as the occasion arises. He’s planning a career as a music producer.

“I like all different kinds of music. When you’re a producer, you never know what kind of bands you’ll wind up dealing with,” he said, though he prefers gospel music as a way of sharing his faith.

Nguyen credits God as the source of his strength, and says faith has kept him going through many difficult times.

“When I was in high school, I wondered why my life had turned out as it had. I kept questioning: If God loved me, why was I blind and why did He take away my family?

“My girlfriend at the time told me, ‘I don’t know why, but God does, and He has plans for the way it is. Don’t question Him, just wait for the answer. If you don’t know God, you don’t know anything.’

“I’m the most hard-headed guy, and waiting is not easy for me. My family was all Buddhist, and I was raised that way. She told me, ‘You can’t stand between both — you must choose.’ And I gave myself to God,” Nguyen said.

He and the young woman remain friends, he said.

“I don’t have a girlfriend now, but I do have a Chihuahua. It’s living with my brother in Lawton now, though. A lot of people ask me if I could get a Guide Dog, but with my music and all, it’s really not practical. A dog takes a lot of care, and probably wouldn’t like having to hang around a music studio,” Nguyen said with a laugh.

Nguyen has a Web site, myspace.com/tommywinmusic. He chose the name of the site to make it easier for his friends to spell and because he hopes to help win others to Christ through his music. With the faith and determination that have brought him this far, Nguyen is a winner, any way you spell it.

Although Nguyen’s enjoyment of the Fourth’s fireworks will come more through sound than sight, his limited vision does allow him to see a little bit of light, so the brighter displays may be visible for him. It doesn’t matter, though. The true fireworks will be in his heart as he celebrates the realization of the dream his mother had for him and knows what it’s like to be an American at last.