HOT PURSUIT
The holiday season is a little brighter for Peng Olson this year. And she has every reason to be brighter and merrier.
After 50 years, she doesn’t have to wonder anymore and knows exactly where her biological mother is at.
I can’t imagine the burden that has been lifted off Olson’s shoulders after making the discovery of her mom just a few months ago. She found her mother living in a skilled nursing facility in the Los Angeles area.
For the first time ever, Olson shares her heartwarming story publicly in the Steele County Times. It’s one that brought tears to my eyes as I sat listening to Olson for hours share her the touching details of how she was finally reunited with her mother. I just hope I’m able to capture a piece of Olson’s emotion through my storytelling abilities.
Initially, I don’t believe Olson realized what kind of story she had to share with others.
“It’s a little bit moving, I guess,” Olson reluctantly offered midway through the interviews I conducted.
Olson says she has been filled with sadness for a half century as her heart ached for both her father and mother. Her dad because of all that he endured with the impact of the Vietnam War and the lingering effects of PTSD, even to this day. And her mom because of the pain associated with leaving everything behind when they moved to America, even while the war was going on.
“They took a risk to live their life freely,” Olson explained. “The beauty of their story is that they survived.”
And I offer that what’s even more beautiful is that Olson is sharing their story with others.
Olson shared how proud she is of her family and who they are.
“I look at my family at how amazing they are and how much they have had to overcome,” she said. “I admire their perseverance. I am very proud of my family and who they are.”
Life hasn’t exactly been easy for Olson, who grew up Amerasian. She often struggled with her Asian looks and identity. She had trouble embracing her own ethnicity.
“I know what it’s like to be called chink, half breed, yellow face, to be asked ‘do you like dog.’ I know that humiliation, I know the pain,” said Olson, adding she was always picked on.
As years went by, Olson learned how to use her differentness as an advantage. She has become a community activist and shared decades of working on community projects. In recent years, she has forged a partnership with the Greater Alliance for Equity in Steele County.
Olson is easily bothered at how immigrants are treated because “they look different.”
She said for so many years she denied her own heritage. “I was going back and forth between my Asian ethnicity and American growing up,” Olson said. “I am who I am. I am who I’m supposed to be, and now I get this moment to reunite.”
The reuniting, of course, that is talking about is with her mother who had been missing from her life for five decades.
“I’ve had so many experiences,” she said. “I embrace my ethnicity and background. It has shaped me into who I am.”
And Olson has found a silver lining through her entire journey.
“Don’t give up on your hopes, dreams and aspirations,” she said.
If anything, being different may help even more. It certainly has in Olson’s case as she went in hot pursuit of being reunited with the woman who brought her into this world.