Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022
Ngoc Quy Thi Nguyen was born on December 15, 1947, in Saigon, Republic of Vietnam.
While in Saigon, she met Roy Delmer Sheehan. His parents were Delmer John Sheehan (1911-1974) and Muriel Esther Thompson (1912-2005). Roy grew up on a farm with 13 other siblings and developed a charming, down-to-earth personality. He was drafted into the Army and spent two tours in Vietnam. While in Vietnam, Ngoc Quy Thi Nguyen married Roy Sheehan.
At that time, the Fall of Saigon happened, and in 1975 the city became Ho Chi Minh City, and Ngoc Quy Thi Nguyen and family moved to Shakopee, where Roy had lived before the war.
Ngoc Quy Thi and Roy had three children. They also raised two other Vietnamese children. The five children included Ngoc Be (1968), Hai Ngoc (1970), Maria Elizabeth (1972), Bonnie Alice (1975) and Amy Nguyen Sheehan (1977).
Those children inherited the parents’ quirky sense of humor, a non-conventional and creative spirit, and an appreciation for distinctive beauty, diverse tastes, and bold, truthful living with a healthy dose of fun thrown in.
Roy was a devout Catholic, genius mechanic and builder, creative problem-solver, magnificent singer, RV-enthusiast, incredibly supportive and patient parent, world traveler, generous human, gifted storyteller, lover of Spaghetti Westerns, all-day breakfast, and coffee. Roy was an educator for mentally challenged adults. Roy was praised and awarded for his novel programs that expanded and challenged societies’ understanding of his students’ abilities and skillsets.
In an article in the Shakopee Valley News by Mary Schaefer, Ngoc Quy and her family visited their daughter’s first classroom at Sweeney Elementary School to talk about her life in Vietnam. Ngoc Quy told the class that she loves freedom.
“I really like – the first thing – is freedom. You never get scared here. The freedom — I like it. In Vietnam they have war.”
In the article “For Ngoc Quy, life is suddenly quite different,” she remembered, “You go to sleep and the rocket falls on the house and you die. Then one time it go to the school roof and it blow up. Then all the students and teachers, they die.” Ngoc Quy remembered the terrible life.
In Shakopee, she hates the tornados, thunder, and lightning. “In Vietnam we have no winter, but we have floods. We have no snow but we have monsoon.”
School starts at age eight. “Then you go all day long from eight o’clock to 4:30. You must bring your own food. They have no bread over there. No milk, just cold water.”
Of course, the students were not happy.
Ngoc Quy noted that in Vietnam, “We eat a lot of fish and a lot of rice – every day, all year. And salad like spinach. Not much meat, though. Too expensive. We have no hamburger, no hot dog in Vietnam. We eat snake and dogs for meat. We ate cat, too.”
The class continued to listen to Ngoc Quy. “Chicken and pork chops are eaten rarely,” except of special occasions like the coming of a new year. “We have no candy, no cookies. But that is good because then there is no cavity in the teeth!”
Ngoc Quy, Roy, and their children lived in a bilingual home where they spoke Vietnamese and English. In fact, Ngoc Quy spoke four languages – French, Chinese, English, and Vietnamese.
She learned English in Vietnam, but “I not used to talk to people in English. Sometimes you talk and I must see it written to understand. Everybody learn English in Vietnam.”
When Ngoc Quy Thi Nguyen Sheehan was 31, she divorced her husband, Roy.
Ngoc Quy Thi Nguyen Sheehan died on May 28, 2007.
Roy Delmer Sheehan, her ex-husband, died in 2020, and was buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, according to Find a Grave.
Bibliography
cd39. “Roy Delmer Sheehan.” Find a Grave, 27 Aug. 2020. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/214891116/roy-delmer-sheehan.
Schaefer, Mary. “For Ngoc Quy, life is suddenly quite different.” Shakopee Valley News, 28 Feb. 1976.