When she first arrived in the United States, single mother Suu Ngo spoke no English.
After a few months of language classes, she began working at restaurants in her new country. For years, Ngo held multiple jobs to support her two children, and after the death of her daughter, raised her three grandchildren on her own.
Today, the 67-year-old grandmother – who was recently featured in the San Francisco Chronicle’s weekly column "The Regulars" – still wakes up for work every morning, now as a street sweeper with San Francisco’s Department of Public Works.
“My grandchildren say, ‘Grandma you need to stop work, we’ll take care of you’ and I say, no. I still strong, I want to work,” Ngo told the Chronicle. “I don’t want to stay home, boring. Nothing to do. Watch TV all the time? You’d be crazy. I don’t want to do that. I want to go outside, exercise and see people talking, talking, happy. I don’t want to stay home, no. I happy.”
Watch Ngo’s story below:
[Photo viaVn Tin Nhanh]