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Pearl Pritchard was about 13 when he says the communist Vietnamese government took his mother away because it believed she was working for the CIA. Not knowing what happened, Pearl ended up a beggar on the streets of Saigon.
For two years, he said he had no one to protect or love him.
"I thought my mom just left me," he said, though she never did.
Pearl's father — a Texan stationed with the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War — had left the country after the war and never had contact with his son again. Because Pearl was Amerasian, with brown eyes, brown hair and other American features, his situation was worsened.
"They don't look at me like I'm a human because I look different," he said, which he feared caused his mother to abandon him.
Pearl remembers sleeping on boxes in the marketplace and eating leftover scraps of food from restaurant customers. After washing his one pair of clothes, he'd sleep naked under a blanket while they dried overnight, and he hid them so they wouldn't be stolen.
By the time Pearl met entertainment critic Katie Kelly — who spent a year teaching Amerasian kids in Saigon in early 1990 — he was back with his mom, Dung. The two were among the luckier Amerasian families, Katie said. They lived in a corrugated shack attached to a small house on the edge of the city, where they made sticks of incense to sell in a Buddhist temple.
When Katie arrived, Pearl was constantly at her side, along with his friends, trying to learn English. One day, the group met an American Vietnam veteran named John Pritchard, who was touring the country. Before leaving, he gave his address to Pearl, not knowing how it would someday change his life.
Hope for a future
Before he met Katie, Pearl said didn't feel safe or that he could ever live a normal life and have a family, house and job.
"She pulled me out of the water, so I can breathe," he said.
Katie helped him and other kids come to America through the Amerasian Homecoming Act of 1987.
But when Pearl messed up on his paperwork — he told Vietnamese authorities he was an orphan because he heard it would give him priority treatment — he nearly forfeited his mother's chance of leaving. Katie helped clear up the situation, and Dung later joined her son.
But the story doesn't end there.
Before Pearl came to America, John Pritchard got a call in Rochester, Minn., from Catholic Charities, asking him to sponsor Pearl.
"My jaw first kind of dropped," Pritchard said.
But when he called back, his answer was yes.
"I grew up in Vietnam," Pritchard said, and he felt Americans owed the Vietnamese after leaving their country in shambles.
A new life
When Pearl arrived in Rochester in 1991, he was 20 years old, but very different from others his age. With only the five years of schooling he had before Americans left, and little English skills, he had a lot of catching up do.
He went to high school for two years, and instead of working at a place with other Vietnamese, John had Pearl work at Old Country Buffet so he could adapt to American culture.
Pearl made friends with Americans and for his first years in Rochester re-lived his teenager years — which he said sometimes put him at odds with John — whom he considers his father. He wishes he recognized John's wisdom then as much as he does now.
"In my mind and my heart, he's my real dad," Pearl said. "Without his help, I don't think I'd have everything I have today."
About a year after Pearl arrived, John sponsored his mother Dung. The two had never met each other before, but ended up marrying.
The family still wasn't complete.
When John and Dung returned to Vietnam they met Moon, a girl who used to date Pearl. She had told Pearl she would wait 10 years for him before agreeing to marry another.
But Pearl — a ladies' man — was dating American women, trying to become truly Americanized. However, as he matured, he realized the women he was seeing weren't the type he wanted to marry. When his parents returned to America they encouraged him to pursue Moon. Pearl listened, re-contacted Moon, who was still interested, and married her at age 26.
The couple now lives in Rochester, down the block from Pearl's parents.
A dream come true
What was only in his dreams has happened. Pearl is living in America and has all he's ever wanted — a home and a family.
"He confronted the American dream and made it happen," Katie said.
Pearl said he wants to encourage other immigrants that they can also make a life for themselves.
"You have to believe in yourself to survive," he said. "I believe(d) one day it is going to get better. Keep working hard, you're going to have it."
But even Pearl — an outgoing optimist — has to hear his own advice.
Recently laid off from his machine operator job at PEMSTAR, Pearl had no work or insurance when his wife gave birth to their second son. The situation grew worse when John, Jr. was hospitalized, and Pearl worried he would lose his son. Doctors discovered the infant was allergic to protein and prescribed special milk.
Then Pearl worried about mounting medical bills, and feared he would lose his home.
But with a much needed jolt from others, he's looking up.
People told him, "Wake up, let's hope again," he said.
