The lights appeared outside Sieu Tang Wood’s airplane window, with $275 in her and her sister’s pockets, and their possessions tucked into one suitcase each.
San Francisco was just ahead, her life and her family behind her in Laos, and one question riddled her.
Where am I going to sleep … tonight?
“I left a lot behind me, and I knew nothing about what was in front of me,” Tang said. “I had no idea.”
Closing in on five decades later, Wood looks back with pride at what she’s since accomplished, while also yearning for others to taste such success.
Those humble beginnings have blossomed into a life that brought her a business, Tang’s Alterations, where she thrives; brought her to Alabama and Montgomery, a state and community she helps enrich every day; brought her family to America, with children now running successful businesses in northern Virginia and Las Vegas; and brought her a love for this country.
And it all started in 1973 with that descent into San Francisco and a cold call to someone she wasn’t sure would remember her.
“The United States is a free country. Everybody would love to come here,” Wood says in a deep accent. “Freedom of religion. The Founding Fathers and the Constitution, one of the things every place in the world should learn from.
“When I left Laos, everybody was running away from the communists, from socialism,” she said. “I go to a place where I can make my dreams come true.”
They have, but it goes well beyond the six locations of Tang’s Alterations sheowns.
There are her customers, of which there have been many. Wood, the Advertiser's Community Hero for June, jokingly estimates she’s helped with 100,000 wedding dresses — “two or three per day for 40 years” — and apparently does it well.
She’s noticed that she’s working on second-generation brides. Their mothers brought their dresses to her and are now bringing their daughters.
“She’s fantastic,” Denise Allen said this month after picking up her mother-of-the-bride dress and hugging Wood.
It was the final piece of Wood’s efforts in her daughter’s wedding that was two days later.
“We couldn’t have done the wedding without her,” Allen said. “She’s like family.”
There are her relatives, such as the daughter who owns a Tang’s Alterations of her own in Manassas, Virginia, and the son who owns a tour company in Las Vegas.
Sweetours started with one van and 300 customers in 2000. As of 2015, according to the company, it had two vans, seven minibuses and 17 large buses that took 48,000 guests to see the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, et al.
“I always tell my children that becoming a successful businessperson is not just how you make money, but how you benefit other people,” Wood says. “It’s how you treat your employees, how you treat your customers. They support you and build you up.”
There are her employees, from whom she expects much but who she also treats like family. Some of her past employees now own their own Tang’s Alterations.
“Give them a reason why they want to help you, support you,” she said. “I want the people who work at Tang’s to live out their dreams, too. When I see that, it makes me feel happy.”
There are her charities and volunteer boards and philanthropy, from the Montgomery Area Council on Agingand its Meals on Wheels program to AUM’s Confucius Institute to the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra and more.
“We are glad she is there to help us all,” said Mrinal Varma, provost and senior vice chancellor at AUM, where the Confucius Institute helps teach the Chinese language and helps international students.
He visited Wood this month with a full set of new slacks.
“I think she’s a great advocate of higher education and a great supporter of our students,” Varma said. “Most importantly, she offers her own home to the international students and welcomes them with open arms. That means a lot.”
Meals on Wheels is one of her favorites, Wood says, because it helps many who have spent their lives helping others. Another is Kid One Transport that helps children get to medical care. She does it to honor a son who died in 2004 at age 36 of lung cancer.
“Nobody can bear the loss of a child,” Wood said. “From the hurt and pain, I thought I could help others. I can’t save my son, but I can help other children.
“They still have a chance to live.”
It comes down to that old saying: You can’t take it with you. But what Wood, who looks nothing like you would think a 76-year-old should look like and whose bubbly personality and smile resemble someone much younger, does now can make a lasting impact.
“We cannot take our money where we’re going, to heaven, but we can invest in others,” Wood said. “We come to this earth for a very short time. If you do it right, your trip can do good for other people for 100, 200, 300 years.”
She mentions Wynton “Red” Blount, and the Montgomery park that bears his name and is the home of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.
“It’s going to be there forever,” Wood says. “Montgomery people and other people in Alabama will benefit forever.”
The road to all that began with the phone call from the San Francisco airport.
Wood called someone she had worked with in Laos during her six years working for Air America, a CIA front company. The uncertainty subsided quickly when he remembered Sieu, who asked if she and her sister could spend a few nights.
Committed to standing on their own, they quickly found jobs and rented their own apartment, which was far from spacious.
It was one room —not quite as big as her current office at Tang’s Alterations newest location near Arrowhead —and the sisters shared one single-sized bed.
The apartment cost $65 a month, was in the basem*nt of a building and featured a community shower in the hallway.
The sisters slept toes to nose to maximize space.
Sieu was soon working in the mornings at an import company, teaching Chinese in the afternoons in San Francisco’s Chinatown and washing clothes at night.
Soon, she started sewing and bought a $28 sewing machine to help.
Wood kept a hectic pace.
“When I started to fall asleep, I think, ‘Another stitch, another few pennies,’ ” Wood said. “’Closer to being able to bring my children over.’”
Within a year, she moved to Anchorage, Alaska, and worked at a Japanese restaurant while continuing to “learn” how to sew.
“There’s a Chinese saying that when you’re sick for so long, you become a doctor yourself,” Wood said. “You make mistakes, so many mistakes, but you learn from those mistakes.”
She decided to open her first store in Alaska in 1974 and made the risky decision to expand it in 1975 to 3,000 square feet. The owner of the mall, she says, had open space and offered her a good deal.
“I took a chance,” Wood said. “Taking a chance won’t make you successful, but taking a chance helps you learn. You have to learn and really believe, drop by drop, little by little.”
She was in Alaska for six years and says she still loves Anchorage, though at many times of year “you may not know if it’s day or night.”
From there, she moved to Columbus, Georgia, and a brother-and-law had contracts with military bases such as Fort Benning and Maxwell Air Force Base.
He decided to give up the Maxwell contract and Sieu bid on it herself. She soon moved to Montgomery —where she met her husband, Bill. They married in 1990.
Her story went from there to the charities she supports and the church, Frazer United Methodist, that she is devoted to and the businesses she runs.
Her first Tang’s Alterations was in Cloverdale and her most recent, the Arrowhead location, opened in March.
Quite a journey, which she said she hasn’t reflected on. She’s too busy —despite being 76, she still reports for work "every day, wherever I'm needed.”
“I always look at what I can do today,” she said. “All my vision was on what can I do today?”
But there may be one day of which Wood is most proud.
It was in 1979, back when she was in Anchorage.
She was driving “a second-hand Buick” and an extra key dangled from the ignition. It was to a house she had bought for $64,000 on Olympic Drive in Anchorage.
She was a newly minted U.S. citizen, owner of her own business, settling into American life as she made her way to the airport to collect an important delivery.
“When I came over, I had no idea where I was going to stay. I didn’t know what I was going to do,” Wood says.
“When I went to pick up my children, I told them, ‘You have a home, and we’re riding there in a car we own.’ ”
Community Heroes Montgomery
The 12-month Community Heroes Montgomery, sponsored by Beasley Allen Law Firm, will profile one person every month this year.
Every monthly winner will receive a $500 travel voucher from the Montgomery Regional Airport and American Airlines, a staycation from Wind Creek, dinner at Itta Bena restaurant and a certificate of appreciation from Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange.
At the end of the 12 months, the Heroes will be recognized at a banquet, and a "Hero of 2018" will be honored.
The 12 categories the Montgomery Advertiser will focus on: educator, health, business leader, military, youth, law enforcement, fire/EMT, nonprofit/community service, religious leader, senior volunteer, entertainment (arts/music) and athletics (such as a coach).
Do you know a Community Hero?
To nominate someone for Community Heroes Montgomery, email communityheroes@gannett.com. Please specify which category you are nominating for and your contact information.
January:For Charles Lee, 'Success is one kid at a time'
February:There's Peace of mind helping others fly
March:‘Dynamic’ Johnston the spark behind Respite
April:Kirk Johnson makes a difference in athletes' lives
May:For LaDonna Brendle, riches come with helping those in need
