“26 years old” on the post, without at- tempting to read or properly translate
the rest of the post. I thought “Oh it must be Wanbi’s birthday today !” and I
was about to comment “Happy Birthday Wanbi” until I saw one of the
comments … “RIP Wanbi”. My blood went cold and my heart stopped for a
moment. “No !” I thought “It can’t be ! Wanbi has died ?” Translating the
full text of the message told me the truth. Wanbi had been pronounced dead,
at the young age of just 26 years old, which would be only 25 in west- ern
terms.
A beautiful life cut short far too soon, I began to cry. I composed my-
self as best I could and called my wife on Skype. She looked at my red eyes
and quickly asked “What’s wrong ? You ok ?” with worry. I broke down
and my speech faltered so much that I had to say it several times before she
could understand me. “Wanbi died. I just read about it on Facebook. Wanbi
died today”. She told me I was a baby, because Vietnamese people treat
death differently and it isn’t normal to cry over someones death who isn’t
part of your family, but I couldn’t hold back the tears and she just smiled in
amusement and told me she was sorry to hear it. We listened to Tìm Thấy
to- gether on my laptop over Skype while I tried not to bawl too much.
Wanbi, I never got a chance to meet you and tell you how much your
music moved this crazy foreigner, and how that song especially became the
anthem for my own cross-cultural love, but I am writing this to tell ev-
eryone that Wanbi was a great man and a beautiful singer with a heart of
gold and whose smile could melt any pain. I wrote about him so many
times, across three different blog sites. Whenever anyone asked “Do you
like Vietnamese music ?” I would always answer without thinking and say
“I love Wanbi’s music !”
I want to end this article with a different song though. I want to share
with you a song that I used to put on in the mornings to put a smile on my
face and prepare me for the day ahead. It’s a good one to use as an example
of his work because it shows him do- ing what he did best – making people
