After four years of building a life in America, Chen Ming Hai, owner of Dragon China Buffet, is finally able to bring her daughter, Mimi, to International Falls.
The tearful reunion with her 5-year-old came when Chen traveled to New York, where Mimi has lived with her father for the past few months after coming from China. The two came back to the Falls just over a week ago.
“I am very, very happy,” said Chen.
Mimi seems equally happy and doesn’t like to let her mother out of her sight. If Chen leaves to do an errand it can become a tearful event for the girl.
“She says, ‘I will be good, I want to stay with you mommy’,” Chen added.
Chen still greets her customers as friends with a cheerful smile, but those who know her can now see a nurturing and sometimes stern side of Chen as a mother. She balances her time between the kitchen, the customers and the attention-demanding Mimi.
Mimi has grandparents in the Falls as well. Chen lives with her parents in a downtown apartment, and says they are excited to have their granddaughter with them at home and at the restaurant where they cook.
“They love to see her and want to see her everyday,” Chen said. “They don’t want me to move out and want me to stay with them.”
Chen was separated from Mimi in 2004, when she came to New York from China, where her husband and parents were already living and working. Later that year Chen came to the Falls to help an uncle with the restaurant that she would take over in 2005.
Mimi stayed with extended family in her native Fuzhou, in the Fujian province of China, where it is common for extended family to remain in the same villages and homes for several generations.
Though the separation is not uncommon, Chen said that learning English and becoming an American was her goal, so that she could bring Mimi to live with her.
It also gave time for Chen and her spouse to become U.S. citizens and allow Mimi to be naturalized.
The separation meant a lot of phone calls at odd hours to accommodate about a 12-hour time difference. Chen would also try to visit Mimi in China at least once a year.
Just as Chen praises her friends in the Falls for teaching her English for the past four years, she said they have also taken to Mimi and are helping her to adjust to a new life.
Although Mimi is coming along well, Chen said that she is just beginning to learn English and that her mind is still in China. She hopes to have her playing with other children and ready for school soon.
“She asks me why people can’t speak Mandarin?” said Chen. “It’s pretty hard for her, but she is picking (English) up.”
