They had a lot of money from their business so Patrick and his sister were able to have their very own servants before the communists showed up. Then one day they finally did show up, capturing his mother and putting her in prison. The communists took everything from them, the kids were street orphans living off of the kindness and generosity of other people when they were just 9 and 7 as a whole year. They went from being a super rich and powerful family to having almost nothing to their names.

In the prisons, they kill all of the land and business owners. His mother kept denying that she owned any land because she married into the family. They tortured her for a very long time trying to pry information out of her but she was a very strong woman and would not budge. 

They even got her kids and threatened to kill them right in front of her if she did not say anything. She cried and begged them not to do anything and that she did not have any land in her name. She ended up writing letters to her family in Hong Kong begging them to send the land receipts to the prison to prove that it was not in her name. This ended up happening, freeing her.