An Oscar Surprise for Orphaned Teen

Feb. 25, 2005 — -- Life was happy for Ben and Susie Tang as they raised their family in suburban Phoenix. Their family blossomed, first with Ryan and then Tiffany, and then the family seemed complete when little Ashley came along.

Ben was a computer engineer for Kodak, while Susie was a popular home economics teacher. She'd often tell her students about her own children, whom she always called "special."

When Ashley was a toddler, her mom became ill. Susie was diagnosed with breast cancer. "I remember taking trips to the hospital and I didn't know what was happening," said Ashley, now 18.

After a remission, the cancer returned. Ashley didn't understand that her mother was battling to survive.

"I remember everyone gathered around her, praying over her bed," said Ashley.

It was a fight that eventually ended Susie Tang's life.

"Before they closed the casket, I remember the last thing I said to her was, 'Goodbye, Mommy. I'll see you in heaven,'" remembered Ashley.

Dealing with their sadness, Ashley and her father turned to each other for support and became very close. They played ball; he took her to see "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno;" they did everything together. She was in every way "daddy's little girl."

While her older brother and sister left home and went off to college, Ashley began to focus on school and became an A student.

But just when everything seemed to be going well for Ashley, her world suddenly collapsed around her.

"I just saw the look in [my father's] face when he came home from the doctor," Ashley said. "I knew it wasn't some news I wanted to hear."

It seemed unimaginable -- her father now had lung cancer. Ashley was only in seventh grade when she was told that her father had only one year to live.

As her father's disease progressed, Ashley studied by day and cared for her dad at night. She bathed him, helped him with his medication and kept him company.

Ashley's aunt, Betty Mah, says the young girl cared for her ailing father when no one else could.

"She was the only one here at night to help him," Mah said.