VHM_0054

This sand dollar was collected during the perilous “vượt biên” escape by sea undertaken by many Vietnamese refugees after 1975. It was preserved by the donor in memory of her younger brother, Nguyễn Duy Hoàng, who was in his final term of military training when he fled Vietnam. Upon reaching land at a refugee camp in a neighboring Asian country — his first step on the "land of freedom" — he stepped on this small shell. Rather than discarding it, their family chose to keep the sand dollar as a deeply personal memento and have carefully preserved it for decades.