Canadian man returns from the brink, transformed by Vietnamese love of his life

He recalls the gloomy winter day in 2019 when he received a friend request on a dating app from a girl named Phan Khanh Khanh. He decided to accept. Khanh, a marketing undergraduate who had moved from Vietnam to Canada for high school, struck him as approachable from their first online conversation.

Though reserved, she listened attentively, which made her presence genuinely warm. In turn, Tippett’s daily gestures of kindness won over the girl from My Tho City in the southern Tien Giang Province.

After two weeks of messaging, they arranged to meet. She had expected him to pick her up by car and take her out for a meal or coffee, but as she approached the intersection outside her home, she was surprised to see him waiting on the other side, having walked over. The two spent the day strolling around town, marking the beginning of a relationship, the first for both.

Khanh and Nathan during their trip to Vietnam to visit Khanh's parents. Photo courtesy of the couple

Soon she sensed a sadness beneath his cheerful demeanor. One day, two months into their relationship, she noticed his eyes were red and teary. Setting aside what she was doing, she encouraged him to share his thoughts. After a long silence, he opened up about his painful childhood.

His parents divorced when he was eight, and he spent half the year with each of them. Left largely unattended, he drifted from school and eventually dropped out. At 18 he worked part-time to help his mother pay her rent, but had to move in with his father when she found a new partner. During this period his mental health deteriorated. He neither studied nor worked, and tensions with his father escalated. His father eventually placed him in an adult reformatory center, but he was expelled within two weeks for misbehavior. He ended up homeless and on the streets.

"His body trembled when he recounted that Christmas in 2018 when he had to message his father, begging to come home," Khanh, now 24, says. Over the following months he stayed with his grandmother. A month before meeting Khanh, he had secured a steady job and moved into his own place. Shocked to hear his story, she hugged him and assured him that he would not have to face life’s struggles alone anymore. "Understanding his past helped me empathize with him and offer comfort whenever he felt down," she says.

But his struggles were more difficult than she had imagined. In February 2020, during a visit to his brother in another province, he made a video call to her with, to her horror, his wrist soaked in blood. Drinking and mental distress had driven him to slash his wrists. "Fortunately, Nathan’s brother found him in time and rushed him to the hospital," she recounts.

Tippett returned to Ontario, where Khanh put everything on hold to stay by his side, offering him support and encouragement to help him through his dark period. As the snow melted and cherry trees began to bloom outside, she made nourishing soups and porridges and made him eat. "That was the first time I envisioned a peaceful life with someone who truly cared for me," he says.

With time his mental health stabilized. A year into their relationship, they considered moving in together, but Khanh was firm about a commitment: "Let’s get married," she said, catching him off guard. He told her that early marriages were uncommon in Canadian culture, with many couples cohabiting for years before marrying, if at all. "I was 22, she was 20, and we had nothing," he says. After a few days of thought, he agreed on one condition: "If we have children, no matter what hardships come, we will not separate but work through them together."

Khanh and her husband Nathan holding the keys to their new home in December 2023. Photo courtesy of the couple

Phan Phi Khanh and his wife received their daughter’s call at their home in Tien Giang Province announcing her wedding plans. Initially they were against the marriage. She was still in school and inexperienced, and they feared language and cultural differences, worrying he would not be as loving and understanding as someone from her own culture.

However, her three aunts in Canada, who had met Tippett, found him kind-hearted and genuinely caring toward their niece. Her parents gradually softened as her aunts kept putting in a good word for him. "I realized that our daughter’s happiness is what truly matters," her father says.

In December 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the couple held an intimate wedding ceremony with only 20 guests. They used their combined savings of CAD50,000 (US$36,000) and wedding gifts from family and friends to start their new life. With work limited due to pandemic restrictions, Tippett resumed his studies to get his high school diploma. This enabled him to secure a full-time position at an automotive manufacturing company with better pay and benefits than his previous part-time job.

Khanh graduated and worked briefly in a corporate role before starting a haircare business and later moving into insurance. After originally planning to buy a home by 2025 they achieved the goal sooner thanks to steady jobs and careful savings. In the winter of 2023, three months before their first child was born, they moved from a cramped 27-square-meter basement flat to a spacious 100 sq.m condominium. Their new home now echoes with the sounds of their son’s laughter and cries.

Tippett took five months’ paternity leave to help his wife care for their child. During this time they also brought their son to Vietnam to meet his grandparents. As they spent time together Khanh’s parents developed a deep bond with their grandson and son-in-law. "Knowing Nathan’s childhood, I grew more attached to him, and began to view him as my own son," her father says.

Khanh, Nathan and their son in Ontario, Canada in October 2024. Photo courtesy of the couple

Whenever they meet, Tippet's parents and grandmother continuously thank Khanh for turning his life around. But she sees it differently: She is grateful that he has brought purpose to her life. Once a carefree girl from a well-off family, she has learned to be mature, managing a household and embracing family responsibilities.

"He has always been my rock, my most steadfast supporter, helping me grow in my career," she says. Tippet says people often ask him why he married young and his answer is: "When you cannot imagine a future without someone, marriage becomes the most obvious choice.

"I used to think I was unlucky, but now, looking back from my 20s, I feel fortunate to have found someone who made me want to change."