Tuyet Tran envisioned - then realized - great possibility in Prince Edward Island.
She came here in 2014 from Vietnam through the Provincial Nominee Program with her husband, Kien Chu, the couple’s three children and a good deal of confidence.
Tran and Chu thought their children – daughters Ngan, 22, and Binh, 18, and son Thanh, 11, - would be able to get a good education in Canada.
Tran says the children felt homesick their first three months living in P.E.I. but made friends fairly quickly, settling in quite comfortably.
Today, Ngan is studying at UPEI and Binh is studying at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Thanh attends West Royalty Elementary School.
“We feel very good,’’ says Tran.
“My children enjoy their life. I feel very safe.’’
She recalls how her family enjoyed that first winter here with plenty of snow in P.E.I. The family, of course, never experienced the white stuff in Vietnam, which enjoys a tropical climate but also experiences monsoons as well as very hot and dry periods.
Living in a nice home in Charlottetown, Tran and her husband are able to provide well for their children.
Chu, who worked for a shipping company in Vietnam, works for Island Abbey Foods.
Tran, who owned and operated a water system business in Vietnam, has been enjoying entrepreneurial success in P.E.I. as well.
She worked for three companies in the province before getting into business on her own.
She now owns and operates the 17-unit By the Bay Cottages in Stanhope and is building a 36-unit apartment building on Eleanor Court in Charlottetown.
“I can run business,’’ she notes, her heavily-accented English only slightly fractured at times.
“I can manage everything.’’
Tran is “not surprised’’ life has turned out so well for her and her family in P.E.I.
She says each of her children will decide on their own whether to stay in Prince Edward Island, but she is quick to add she and her husband plan to live here for a long time, “maybe our whole life”.
Her advice to Vietnamese families coming to P.E.I. is simply to make the most of their abilities to enjoy a good and prosperous life on the Island.
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