She lived so quietly that few neighbors ever saw her apartment. But the mysterious anthrax death of a Vietnamese immigrant has revealed a legacy of kindness that touched many in her adopted homeland.
From the electric heater she bought for a neighbor to the Vietnamese soup she made for her friend downstairs, Kathy T. Nguyen's life was marked with kind gestures, small and large.
Nguyen, a 61-year-old hospital worker, died Wednesday, just three days after checking herself into a hospital. With no relatives yet claiming her body, her neighbors, employer and landlord want to make sure she is properly mourned and buried.
Even the local elementary school, where she had no children, may conduct a memorial for her.
"We feel we'd like to contribute to the whole celebration of her life," Public School 66 Principal Marcia Gonzalez said. Many children lived in Nguyen's building and "need that sense of closure."
The hospital where Nguyen worked as a stockroom clerk will hold a memorial service as well. "She touched many people's lives here," said Barbara Wrede, spokeswoman for the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital.
Scott Jaffee, owner and head of the Metropolitan Realty Group, which manages Nguyen's apartment complex, said he would help with funeral expenses if needed.
The network of acquaintances and neighbors in her apartment building are determined to make sure that Nguyen, whom they knew as a Roman Catholic and a cheerful if private friend, is buried with appropriate recognition.
"We do plan to do something to bury her," said Yvette Lebron. "She won't be left in the morgue."
On Thursday, police and federal investigators traipsed through the courtyard where friends erected a small shrine with carnations, candles and a Virgin Mary statue beneath Nguyen's third-floor window. Investigators, still trying to learn how Nguyen contracted the deadly anthrax, were retracing her steps.
Nguyen's friends painted a portrait of a low-key woman whose integration into the fabric of New York was the very essence of the hardworking immigrant story.
But hers also is the story of a caring life -- her thoughtful gifts to an upstairs family at Christmas, her home-cooked delicacies and the invariable call to her landlord to convey holiday wishes.
"She'd come to my house. She'd bring something to eat. She cooked soup for me," said downstairs neighbor Josefa Richardson. Though Richardson's English is limited and Nguyen spoke no Spanish they became friends when both lived on East 86th Street in the late 1970s.
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