Mother seeks peace after girl’s drowning

Nancy Sonn was born with a mild form of autism, but the 4year-old girl recently had showed major improvement in her speech, her mother says.

The girl had been discharged last month from speech and physical therapy, and she had only two weeks left before completing her occupational therapy program. Her mother, Setynon Som, who was born in Cambodia, worked part time in the morning so she could take her to treatment.

Everything was looking up, then last Sunday tragedy struck.

While Setynon prayed inside a new indoor area at the Wat Angkorchum Cambodian Buddhist Temple in northwest Harris County, Nancy wandered outside and was found at the bottom of a 6-foot-deep pond. She later died at a hospital. Like many children with autism, Nancy was drawn to water.

Experts say drowning is the leading cause of death among children on the autism spectrum, according to the Center for Autism Research. They’re also known to wander. In a 2007 poll through the National Autism Association, 92 percent of parents reported their children with autism have a tendency to wander.

Setynon, a 42-year-old single

mother, is reeling from her loss, but she plans to keep working in a south Houston restaurant to support her 2-year-old daughter. She also plans to continue visiting the temple while she works through the tragedy.

“I try really hard, and I know no matter what I have to keep going,” she said. “I have my sister. We have each other.”

Setynon has been living with her sister in a two-bedroom apartment near South Main for the last three years. It’s a step up from the small bedroom she shared with her then-husband after

moving in 2006 from Cambodia to California, where her exhusband’s siblings live, she said.

The couple struggled to make a decent wage when they first arrived in the United States. They didn’t have a car and took the bus to work. Eventually, they separated, and she sought a cheaper cost of living in Texas, she said.

Setynon moved in 2011 into an apartment in Houston. She was drawn to the city’s large Cambodian population and its proximity to the beach.

She started working at a doughnut shop off West Mount Houston Road and eventually bought the business with a friend. But she walked away in 2014 when she got pregnant with

Nancy, she said.

She made enough to support herself for several months into her pregnancy, but without a job, she eventually had to rely on food stamps and Medicaid for the mounting expenses, she said.

In 2016, her sister joined her in Houston and helped with bills. Until that point, Setynon didn’t have any other family in the country to rely on, she said.

She had her second daughter the following year. Then, last June, Setynon took a part-time job working in the kitchen at Morningside Thai.

Setynon continues to see opportunity in Houston, and she doesn’t plan on moving anytime soon. She also said she wants to

pursue a formal English education.

“I want to stay [in Houston] because I can help myself and my baby,” she said. “I don’t think I’m done with work, but being a single mother is really hard.”

While Setynon plans to continue praying at the same temple, she can’t help but think about her daughter’s improvement before her death.

“I’m thinking ‘She’s learning fast,’” she said . “She made me smile every day.”

Nancy was enrolled in pre-K at Longfellow Elementary. Setynon said she loved coloring and painting, especially colors of the rainbow. She also knew how to write her name.

Setynon was aware of Nancy’s love of water from a young age. While Setynon gave her baths, the little girl loved to dip her face in the water for as long as she could, she said.

After the child died Sunday, the temple’s congregation, which is mostly Cambodian, was devastated, said Cheacosarl Koeuth, a senior religious adviser.

“Everyone was crying,” he said.

Setynon said the public is invited to attend Nancy’s funeral from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Friday at Winford Funeral Home, at 8588 Breen Road.

“Just pray for her,” she said.