Optometrist Minh Duong and Thi Bui have spent much of their lives in Athens, Ala. and Gulfport, respectively, but both were born in Vietnam in the mid-1970’s, around the time of the fall of Saigon and the reunification of the country as a Communist nation.

The married couple began their lives with escape from their own home country, and as small children they came to America in poverty. But from their less than fun beginnings, Duong and Bui were able to build an American dream, becoming successful Optometrist and opening their own clinic recently in North Meridian: Primary Eye Care and Optical, which opened three months ago.

Duong’s father, who had fought in the South Vietnamese Navy, had to escape the country after the war for fear of being captured by the Communists. The family left on a boat with two-hundred other refugees, only to have their motor stolen by a gang of criminals. Stranded on a broken boat which was carrying far more passengers than it was meant to hold, the family didn’t think they would survive.

“People died around us,” Duong said. “There was vomiting everywhere.”

But after several days, lost in the waters of Asia, the refugees were discovered and rescued by the Indonesian Coast Guard. “We were just lucky,” Duong said.

Though the family emerged from their dramatic boat journey unharmed, the conditions they met in Indonesia were far from ideal.

They lived in tents at a refugee camp, and had to endure the smell of raw sewage every day. “All I can remember is the vile smell,” said Duong, who was a small child at the time. “I still have dreams about it sometimes. It was just that bad.”

They stayed in Indonesia for a year and a half, and in 1980, when Duong was four years old, the family had a stroke of luck. The First Presbyterian Church in Athens, Ala. decided to sponsor the whole family to the United States, helping them pay for transport and their first few months of housing, and helping them with the difficult paperwork needed to immigrate to the U.S.

“We were just lucky,” Duong said again, to have been chosen from amongst all the other refugees.

Once the family reached Alabama, their living conditions improved, but they still had a long way to go before reaching the American dream. Duong’s father worked 3 jobs, and the rest of the family did everything they could to acquire enough money for the family of eight to live by. They cleaned their church, grew and sold vegetables, picked up aluminum cans, and fished for their dinner at a local river. “If we didn’t catch any fish,” Duong said, “we didn’t eat dinner.”

“We came to America with nothing but the clothes on our backs,” he said, “With no money or education, the only jobs available were custodial and other forms of manual labor. My parents were working 18 hours a day, every day.”

Things got a bit better once the family had been in the country for five years, long enough to become U.S. citizens. Then, they were able to collect welfare, and with the help of food stamps, were able to save enough money to open a small Chinese restaurant in Huntsville, Ala. Things got better for the family, but only incrementally. They no longer had to wonder whether they would have dinner each night, but Duong, who was in the seventh grade, and his brothers, had to work at the restaurant 15 hours a day, seven days a week, during the summer, and on evenings and weekends during the school year.

“This continued throughout high school…It was depressing,” said Duong, “I had no time with friends…But it gave me a good work ethic. It makes what I do now seem easy.”

Duong did find time to indulge one passion when he was in high school – late at night, when he got home from work, he would play tennis. Using his small amount of free time to play his favorite sport paid off – Duong got a full tennis scholarship at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Duong said the decision to become a doctor was not a difficult one. “That’s the only thing I ever really wanted to become,” he said, “except a pro tennis player.”

It was not until he was in college that he decided to become an optometrist, saying that he liked the type of education, the lifestyle, and the freedom of optometry. It was in optometry school at UAB-Birmingham that Duong met his future wife, Thi Bui, another Vietnamese-American who had escaped from communist rule in Vietnam and come to America in 1980.

Bui, who already had relatives in the U.S., did not have quite so difficult a time reaching the country. Instead of waiting at a refugee camp, hoping that someone, somewhere would sponsor her family to the U.S., Bui’s family was sponsored by relatives who were already here. Still, said Duong, “Once they got here they were on their own.”

Bui’s family moved from state to state, following family members, until finally settling in Gulfport. Like Duong, Bui knew she wanted to be a doctor from an early age, saying, “In Asian culture, there is a prestige about doctors,” but did not know she wanted to go into the field of optometry until she entered college. There, she and her fellow students researched different branches of medicine, going to meet different types of doctors, and, she said, “Most of the Optometrist I met, they were happy.”

She and Duong, who are both 33 years old, graduated from UAB together in 2003, and began their careers as Optometrist in Jackson.

They soon moved to Meridian, wanting to live in between their families in Gulfport and Athens. After working in Meridian for a couple of years, they decided to open their own clinic, and their new Primary Eye Care and Optical opened its doors three months ago.

Now, rather than working under an employer, Duong and Bui are their own bosses, and their clinic offers eye exams, diagnosis and treatment of ocular diseases, and eyeglass and contact lens prescriptions. The clinic also fills its patient’s eyeglass prescriptions using their own surfacing lab, and sells a variety of frames.

“Coming to America,” said Duong, “knowing and having nothing, made us work harder to achieve the American dream. Success in business and in life comes from treating people the way you want to be treated. This concept is the foundation upon which we built our practice, and you will see the difference that will make.”