by Sr. Barb Smith, ASC
February 2, 2026, started out as an ordinary day, that is, until around noon. While everyone was enjoying their hamburgers, which is Hien’s favorite American food, the extraordinary happened. Hien was not expecting a farewell party but that didn’t stop us from throwing in St. Maria’s feast, the Chinese New Year, and her birthday. All of this happened during her 30-day retreat. We decided to pull out all the stops!
Each gift she was given honored a facet of her time in Wichita. She spent time learning how to play different card games, so she received two decks of cards with sunflowers on them. She told us she loves chocolate, and a bag of chocolates found a place in her suitcase. She longed for snow and when we finally got several inches of snow we went out and made two snow people. The sad part was the snow was so dry we couldn’t roll a big or little ball but we kept bringing scoops of snow and piling it up until we had a pretty nice pile and we found some packed snow left by maintenance as they plowed the parking lots and we rounded off a couple of them to make a head.
We then showed her how to make snow angels, but she wasn’t too excited about getting down and feeling cold. Her gift was a snow person which was made by holding the snow together in a ball until it was solid, we stacked them three high and decorated them with toothpicks for hands, a bottle cap for a hat and the point of a toothpick painted orange for the carrot nose.
Nikki suggested that she put all of the snow person’s accessories in a plastic bag and when she got back to Vietnam she should pour a glass of water in the bag with the hat, nose and arms and tell the sisters that this was her snow person she made in the USA but it melted on the way. Hien excitedly laughed at this idea.
When I asked her what kind of foods she would like she said, “I am in America, I want to eat American food.” “Such as?” I asked. Well, “hamburgers, steak and I really love chocolate!” We finished off her meal of hamburgers with a double chocolate cake made by our own awesome baker, Nikki, and as you see on her face, she was in heaven.
She was not expecting this party because she thought she would just say goodbye at supper but since everyone knew Hien, we wanted them to be able to celebrate with us in the main dining room with some of the sisters coming down from Caritas to join in the fun. From the first day in Wichita, she was with the sisters, praying the rosary and playing BINGO in Caritas and she certainly loved winning!
The Center is pretty quiet these days without her joy and laughter, her quiet presence, and her love for learning English.
We especially miss her attempts at pronouncing words such as squirrel and many other tongue twisters that brought the house down with laughter.
I am not sure who had the most fun while Hien was here, but there was nothing ordinary from this extra special ASC from Vietnam.