By Susan Smallheer Rutland Herald
BRATTLEBORO — She was barely two weeks old when she came to the United States, an infant in the arms of her 17-year-old mother, both refugees from the brutal Khmer Rouge of Cambodia.On Wednesday Suphada Rom, 19, of Windsor, a freshman at Castleton State College, became a United States citizen, making a dream come true for herself and her family.
And on Saturday, her mother, Rhumdoul Rom, 37, a longtime resident of Windsor who now lives in Keene, N.H., is slated to take her own citizen's oath in Manchester, N.H.
Daughter and mother hugged and cried after the ceremony in U.S. District Court in Brattleboro, as 16 people became United States citizens when District Judge Gar Murtha administered the oath of allegiance.
They came from 12 different countries: Bosnia, Vietnam, Canada, France, Argentina, the Philippines, Cambodia, Congo, Brazil, Ukraine, Lebanon and Pakistan.
The mother and daughter both declared it a "blessing" that they were allowed to come to the United States and become citizens — within days of each other.
"I feel so happy," Suphada said after taking the oath, and later registering to vote. "It's a blessing for us and a blessing for us to be citizens so close together."
Suphada Rom could be any Vermont teenager — one with a dramatic life history.S
he was a standout athlete at Windsor High School, a dedicated honor student and queen of last year's senior prom.
While the mother and daughter have long wanted to be U.S. citizens, it wasn't until 2001 that the U.S. Congress passed a bill that would allow them, and other Indochinese refugees, the opportunity to become citizens.
Five years ago the Roms got their green cards, and began the five-year wait for citizenship.Suphada Rom and her mother, along with other members of the Rom and Soy family, had settled in Windsor starting in the 1980s, sponsored by a large community group. The group raised thousands of dollars to support the family, arranging medical and dental care, education and jobs.
"The citizens of Windsor gave us a home, and they fed us and clothed us," the college student said. She is studying health sciences and Spanish, with a career goal of becoming a physician's assistant.
It was the Windsor group that pressured Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., to find Rhumdoul, who had been kidnapped away from her family as a young girl, only to escape and live in a refugee camp on the Cambodian-Thailand border. It was at that refugee camp that Suphada was born.
She was only five days old when Tim Rieser, an aide to Leahy, traveled to the refugee camps to try and find Rhumdoul on behalf of her mother and brothers now living in Windsor. Rieser found the young woman and managed to get her and her newborn to Vermont.
Leahy has maintained a relationship with the family, working on the bill that would allow them citizenship and sending Suphada congratulations when she graduated from Windsor High School last year.
The Roms' story was made into a television movie and has been the subject of newspaper articles and television coverage dating back 19 years.
Rhumdoul Rom, now a laboratory technician at Valley Regional Hospital in Claremont, N.H., lives in Keene with her fiancé, John Mills.
Michael and Jan Coxon of Windsor brought a scrapbook about the Rom family to the ceremony. They had been Suphada's honorary Vermont grandparents since the young mother and baby arrived in Windsor, and Suphada lived with them for a year and a half while her mother attended college.
The Coxons said Suphada was like a granddaughter to them."We've known her since she was two weeks old," Jan Coxon said. "I taught her to read at 5 … she has a real love for words and reading.
"It's added so much to our lives," she said. "She's our family."Michael Coxon said the Windsor community pulled together to sponsor the family. His scrapbook painted an amazing picture, complete with stories on The Today Show, the New York Times, and a modeling gig for Rhumdoul in motherhood magazines.
The family centered around Prak Soy, the mother of Rhumdoul and her brothers, Sarin and Somnang. Prak Soy came to Vermont in 1988, and the matriarch of the family died last year in Windsor. Suphada remembered her grandmother with tears of joy.
"She was the glue that held our family together," Suphada said.Her mother's father, an educated Cambodian, had been killed by the Khmer Rouge, along with four brothers and other family members.
"A lot of this is for her. She's always in our thoughts," said Suphada of her grandmother, who saw her family fractured and murdered before making a bold move to Vermont.
"It's quite a saga," said Mills, an emergency room physician who met Rhumdoul while working at the Claremont, N.H., hospital.
The Roms have never been back to Cambodia, although Suphada said her mother "always made me in touch with my culture. It's just miles.
"Rhumdoul and Mills joked they may choose Cambodia for their honeymoon after they get married in June.
"They'll have to take me," Suphada said.Brattleboro Town Clerk Annette Cappy helped many of the new citizens register to vote, including Suphada, who sent her stepfather-to-be to the car to retrieve her driver's license.
Jan Coxon said her Cambodian granddaughter has made no secret of her political leanings toward a child of an immigrant.
"She plans on voting for Obama," she said.
Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com.
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