Thai restaurant owner persists despite tragedy

PORTLAND (AP) – Despite tragedy and grief, Suwanna Truong’s dreams remain alive. So too does her commitment to Portland, where she believes her dreams will be realized.

As she prepared for last week’s opening of her new restaurant, Sengchai Thai Cuisine, Truong thought often of her friend, Ratchanee Chitbang-onsio, who died two years ago in a fire at her former restaurant, Seng Thai.

For Truong, 44, the fire did more than take a life and destroy her business. It put her through a spiral of grief, spiritual searching, debt, repayment and, finally, a second chance.

At the end, Truong said, she discovered how resilient the human spirit is and how powerful the American dream can be.

As a young girl on a Thai farm, Truong read about the United States in books. She grew up, married and worked, selling fish hooks. But she felt stifled in Thailand and was drawn to America “because of freedom for women.”

She reached America 10 years ago, leaving a husband and her two sons behind as she searched for a small city on the Atlantic with a welcoming culture that was open to ethnic businesses.

She found all that in Portland, and in Mainers, Truong said. “This is my second home.”

She went to work at the Seng Thai restaurant and later convinced its owner to let her open a namesake restaurant around the corner. She became known as much for her generosity and willingness to help fellow Thais as for her food.

One of those was Chitbang-onsio, who was hungry and broke when she wandered into Seng Thai more than two years ago. Truong took Chitbang-onsio into her home and the two became fast friends.

About six weeks later, Chitbang-onsio was helping out in the basement of the restaurant when it was rocked by an explosion and a fire. In a matter of minutes, everything was gone – Truong’s new friend, the business and the dream.

The Feb. 19, 2001, fire, caused by combustible fumes created by use of gasoline and paint thinner to clean grease traps, left Truong devastated.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Seng Thai $1,575 for using the flammable liquids near an open flame.

Immigration officials looked into several undocumented workers who were employed at the restaurant and left the state soon after the fire. Truong said they were fellow Thais who needed work and were in the process of getting the necessary documents. But their disappearance immediately after the fire – apparently for fear of deportation – complicated the investigation.

Insurance covered only about half of the $160,000 Truong had invested in the restaurant, and other bills plunged her into debt.

Despite those issues, the death of her husband eight months after the fire and an ongoing separation from her two sons in college in Thailand, Truong remained committed to Portland. She sees her future here.

Truong spent some time dealing with all the problems that were left behind by the fire – not enough insurance, bills to pay, employees to help. But she also knew there was one more important obligation to Chitbang-onsio.

“I had to take her spirit back home,” she said.

Truong, a Buddhist, went back to Thailand and spent time praying and symbolically returning Chitbang-onsio’s spirit to her grief-stricken family. It culminated in a ceremony meant to send Chitbang-onsio on to her new life, Truong said.

Shortly after she returned to the United States, Truong’s husband died of a heart attack in Thailand. Now Truong had to take over as head of her family in addition to working to pay off her debts and – she hoped – opening a new restaurant.

She worked her way back, taking several jobs at restaurants, grocery stores and a laundry. She often worked from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m.

Stephanie Holt, a longtime friend, estimated Truong owed nearly $500,000 at one point, and she sold off property and borrowed money from her family to pay off some of her debt.

She still owes about $150,000, Holt estimated, and regularly sends money to Chitbang-onsio’s family.

Truong has her 10-year-old daughter with her, but has been trying to get her sons, who are in college in Thailand, to the United States.

Holt wondered why Truong returned to Maine. Many others would have declared bankruptcy or would have simply walked away from all the debt by moving.

“I said, ‘Why come back to Portland? Why not Asia, Honolulu, New York?’ And she said, Portland was a city with a heart,” Holt said.