40 Stories from 40 Years: A Blossoming Garden

Tuyen, Jerard and their two children, Lam and Jayden, have been in their Habitat Home for  two years and they have made it their own. Tuyen’s passion is her garden as well as her indoor plants. Butterflies grace the back yard that is flourishing with tomatoes, cucumbers, kale, and strawberries, while the front yard is dotted with gorgeous flowers and palms and even a dogwood tree that Tacoma Habitat planted. 

Tuyen always has a new project in mind, from a garden shed to an outdoor swing, she is bursting with ideas on how to make her garden come to life. Jerard, on the other hand, is more laid back, finishing the remnants of the last project before hopping onboard a new one, but he enjoys his wife’s energy and ambition. 

“When we moved into our Habitat Home, it really felt like home, there was no nostalgia for anywhere else, it just felt like home,” Jerard recalls. 

Tuyen likes to sit in her front garden and drink tea, inviting neighbors and community members to come join her. She values that her community is close and that her neighbors are also Habitat homeowners.

“We all help each other out, whether it be for a ride or a cup of sugar,” Tuyen said. 

Since moving in, Tuyen finished her bachelor’s degree and now works at Tacoma Community College helping students navigate Workforce funding opportunities and resources.  

Jerard returned to school for his masters in rehabilitation counseling and got a job right after receiving his degree in August. Their daughter, Lam, is employed at Tacoma Community College as a tutoring coordinator while enrolled in the Running Start program there. Jayden is growing up in a lively neighborhood community, where kids spend their days riding bikes and hoverboards up and down the street, or running around collecting bugs. 

Both Tuyen and Jerard believe in giving back to their community, whether that’s replacing a neighbor’s fallen tree or through Jerard’s work of helping people get back into the workforce. Community and family – values they feel Habitat emphasizes – are important to them. 

The couple met while Jerard was teaching ESL in Vietnam. What started as a short-term stay soon turned into eight years of living in a culture completely different from his own—one built on deep traditions of family and togetherness. In the beginning, Jerard often felt isolated and homesick as he struggled with a new language and way of life. But with determination, he slowly overcame the language barrier and grew to truly feel a part of his community. During the Lunar New Year festival in 2014, Jerard and Tuyen met for the first time, and she warmly welcomed him into her family and community. From that point on, their lives became deeply intertwined, and what began as chance meeting grew into a shared journey of love and belonging.