Laura Phung Spilman started life in Vietnam as a happy young woman with a loving family.  In 1975 when the north seized control, things went very badly for them.  Eventually her family scraped the necessary money for her passage to freedom. She fled Vietnam on a rickety open riverboat with 52 people crammed in. Laura immediately recognized the dangerous situation she and the others were in and asked to be put back ashore but was refused. Thus began a near 1,000 mile journey over the open seas in unseaworthy and overcrowded boat. After nine harrowing days with virtually no food or water they were lost somewhere in the vast South China Sea. Miraculously, they were discovered by a Navy ship and led to the Malaysia Island of Borneo. Had the Navy not found the little boat all would of perished.

On landing, they were welcomed by the Malaysian officials, given food and shelter until they could be resettled elsewhere. She was thrust onto a strange land without money, family or friends living in a refugee camp. After many anxious months she was sponsored by her older sister Ann of Dayton OH and was able to come to the USA.