School Board Director Jim Vue's Family Honored with New Mural

When Jim Vue joined the Saint Paul Public Schools Board of Education in July 2020, he was selected to fill the seat that was tragically vacated when then-Board Chair Marny Xiong died from COVID-19. Just three years and three days prior to Marny’s passing, Jim’s 6-year-old daughter drowned in Lake Elmo. One of the Vue family’s five children, Ghia Nah has remained a strong presence in her family’s lives and continues to make an impact on her community despite her physical absence.

The family’s story has been shared in the media, in a children’s book by award-winning Hmong author Kao Kalia Yang, and with those close to the Vues. Now, a new mural commissioned by In Progress, a local non-profit arts group, “honors the grief we carry for those no longer living within this world.”

Titled “Rainwatcher” after the meaning of Ghia Nah’s name, the mural features a faceless girl in a traditional Hmong dress running in front of a large wave and a starry sky. “Ghia was a force of love and curiosity. She sought to make new friends at every turn and ran through our halls introducing herself to others and then introducing them to others. At her young age she built community as she brought a new definition of belonging to those who had the privilege of knowing her.”

Throughout the process of creating the mural, visual artist Xee Reiter encountered many other stories of grief that deserved to be memorialized. The result is a series of individual stories interwoven into a single mural that is “not only an offering to Ghia and her family, but to all the artists, families, and spirits who walk with grief at In Progress.”

The mural debuted at a community event on June 14, 2025, and can be viewed on the exterior of the In Progress building at 213 Front Ave. in St. Paul’s North End. Below is an excerpt from Jim Vue’s remarks that he shared at the event, titled “My Hollow”:

In the afterlife, Hmong people say we will be united again with our ancestors. If I meet Ghia in the halls of our ancestors, there’s only one thing I want to say to her:

"My name is Jim Vue, son of Wakhue Vue and See Yang. I am married to Sai Thao, daughter of Shong Ying Thao and Thia Cha. My children are Ty Lee Vue, Thee Kou Vue, Ghia Nah Vue, Dhoua Hli Vue and Hlushia Khaoshoua Vue.

In life, I failed you. We got separated. I couldn’t find you in time and you died. But in death, I’ve answered the great question that your life has asked of me."

"Dad, was our short time together worth a lifetime of grief?" 

"Ghia, I wouldn’t change a thing. Will you have me as your father one more time?"