Our family lost our beloved patriarch of 4 generations. Second eldest of 8 siblings, he was born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1931. He is survived by 2 brothers and 1 sister, 4 daughters, 2 sons, and left an admirable legacy of 14 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.

Chapter 1: Early years in Vietnam
He found love very early on, when he was just 17 years old. He married his first love and had 6 children during his 18 year marriage until 1966. In his young adult years, he had to take over responsibilities to raise all his siblings as well as extended family members, when his parents and older brother passed at a young age. Luckily, he had an incredible knack for business and started a successful bakery store when he was just 22 years old in order to provide for his family, which consisted of his brother’s 7 kids, his own 6 kids as well as his younger siblings. While juggling a very busy family life, he managed to grow his bakery business into 3 thriving locations.

Chapter 2: New love and new adventures
He has always been a charming, kind and generous man and often popular with the ladies but his heart was captivated when he met his soulmate at 43 years old. They were together for the next 43 years, until she passed away in 2017.

In 1980, at the age of 49, he uprooted his family, who survived the long, treacherous trip via boat and immigrated to Canada, despite not knowing English and never having travelled outside of Vietnam prior to that day. He held odd jobs here and there, as a dishwasher and in a Panasonic factory as an assembly worker until he saved enough money to start his own business.
His entrepreneurial spirit kicked into gear with the opening of Hinh’s Video, a Chinese video rental store located on Ossington Ave. It was similar to Blockbuster on a small scale but for Chinese movies and drama series, before DVDs and online streaming options, like Netflix, existed. The success of the video store enabled him to proudly buy his first home in the West end of downtown Toronto.

In 1990, as he was approaching 60 years old, there were no signs of him slowing down. Instead, he and a few of his children embarked on a new business venture and opened ‘On the rocks’ a Chinese restaurant and Karaoke bar, located on The Esplanade on the East end of Toronto. He managed the finances while the family ran the day to day business for 16 years, until 2006.

Chapter 3: Slowing down in the latter years
After retirement and stepping away from the restaurant business, he loved to travel and reunite with various family members, including siblings and grandchildren living in Sweden and LA. He went on a number of cruises around the world, returned to Vietnam many times, explored Thailand twice, and visited China and HK as well. When not travelling, you would find him spending hours playing Ma Jong, and/or at the gym on the treadmill, which he continued to do well into his 80’s. He was also a very engaged and proud grandfather and welcomed time to play or babysit his grandchildren.

He was 86 years old when he became a widow and had to learn to live on his own. Of course, he didn’t let that intimidate him and did so with grace! He continued to be independent until age 92, earlier this year. Unfortunately, Covid and being isolated in his apartment unit took a big toll on his body. After turning 92 this summer, he experienced a few minor falls at the end of Aug, which resulted in him being admitted to the hospital where he remained for a few months. His condition remained stable for a while, but he was gradually eating less and less. He got fluid in his lungs on Sunday, Nov. 26th and his condition deteriorated quickly so was placed on a ventilator. He passed away peacefully Monday night surrounded by loved ones.

Chapter 4: Reflecting on his legacy
A charismatic, generous, ambitious, and hard working gentleman.
A dutiful son, brother and father figure.
A savvy business man and successful entrepreneur.
A devoted husband and father.
A fun-loving and wise grandfather and great grandfather.
He was all of this.

We will miss seeing his belly jiggle when he laughed playing with his many grandchildren, hearing him sing to his favorite Chinese songs, listening to his many tales from when he was a child, and emparting life lessons to the younger generations but most of all, we will miss and always remember his indomitable spirit.

A respected patriarch with an indomitable spirit. That's who he was to all. May he rest in peace.

We are grateful to all the doctors, nurses and support staff at the Scarborough Birchmount hospital for taking special care of him for the last couple of months.