Please Help Fix Tuong’s Broken Heart!

My oldest brother is the most selfless, caring, generous, and weird (in a good way, I guess) person I know. While he never hesitates to ask others if they need help, he rarely asks for anything for himself. So I'm making this page to ask for him. He might not be too happy when he finds out I made this page. It's ok. I'll just use my 18-month-old as a shield - he wouldn't dare harm his only nephew. He needs our help, so I will take the risk.

Tuong is having open heart surgery on May 17, and he will be unable to work through September.

My parents and siblings came to the U.S. with nothing but the clothes on their malnourished backs. Through the generosity of strangers, they were sponsored as refugees by a Quaker church in Iowa, with "Grandpa" Bruce and "Grandma" Betty greeting them when they got off the plane. I was born... approximately nine months later. I sometimes joke that I was "Made in China," and "Born in the U.S.A." Dad once said, "No." "But if you want to say that, then you would have been made in a refugee camp." But I digress.

My brother helped raise me. He changed my diapers, bathed me, fed me, took me to school, took me to the doctor (trying not to pass out while they gave me my shots). While my parents worked multiple jobs to make ends meet. When my mom wouldn't let me leave the table after dinner until I ate that last spoonful of rice, Tuong would eat it for me as soon as she turned her back. When he went to college, he took out student loans and got jobs, and he sent money home. He sacrificed so much more than even my advanced child brain could comprehend. Subsisting on a bowl of rice and soy sauce so he could send money home. I could go on, but I'll get to the point.

Tuong hasn't had it easy in life. And yet every time he gets knocked down, he gets back up again. And again. And again. This time, though, he needs our help. With his glass-half-full optimism, he knows everything will just work out, and he'll figure it out. And he's too proud and humble to ask. So I am asking.

My brother is getting triple bypass surgery this month (May 2023). He has basic medical benefits, but the out-of-pocket and deductible are more than any of us can cover. Plus, he's going to be out of work for at least four months. And those bills won't be paying themselves, unfortunately.

Meanwhile, my parents depend on him. He graciously took them into his home. He bought a home for them, so they could live in a house for the first time in over thirty years of being in the U.S. (We grew up with the six of us living in a two-bedroom apartment.).

Anything you can give would be greatly appreciated. From the bottom of our hearts.