My story is like the stories of so many other refugees from that war-depressing and disturbing, graphic and heartbreaking. Nevertheless those pieces, the ones that make you gasp and cringe, are only a fraction of what we have to tell. Our stories are about family, determination and resilience. Our stories are about our pain and suffering we lived through during the communist regime in Cambodia.Thirty five years have passed. To this day, I still do not understand what went wrong, and I may never find out. I only know that I lost everything, including my identity and dignity as a human being. Thirty five years ago the question of how many times a human can rebound from traumatic experiences and live a normal life was all theory for me. Multiple near death experiences transformed the theory into reality and forever changed my life. I wrote this book because I want to tell a story; a story about human strength overcoming desperation beyond imagination. I also want to tell the story of my mother, who sacrificed everything to make sure my siblings and I were safe. I inherited her strength, a strength I didn't know I had; a strength that helped me become a resilient individual who has struggled, and succeeded in overcoming obstacles in my personal and professional life.