The story of former LBCC student turned entrepreneur Marida Ngov, starts with two refugees fleeing the oppressive rule of the Khmer Rouge in a war-torn Cambodia in the 1970s.
Ngov’s mother, Salouen Sak and her future husband Eng Kaing Sok, were stripped of everything by the Khmer Rouge, including their freedom.
For Sak, the one thing that she could latch onto was their jewelry, which would later provide the foundation for a better life.
Pol Pot, a Cambodian communist dictator, was responsible for the genocide of millions of Cambodians from the mid to late 1970s. He served as the leader of the Khmer Rouge, a group dedicated to finding, capturing and killing Cambodians.
Ngov’s parents are survivors of this genocide.
Sok, Ngov’s father, was captured by the Khmer Rouge and endured a series of horrific tests during this time.
These tests consisted of individuals being rounded up to watch babies be thrown up in the air and shot and whoever flinched would be killed on sight.
Sak and Sok shielded their daughter from their experiences. Ngov hadn’t uncovered their past until she was much older.
“I remember growing up I would watch sitcoms about families who would be more open with each other and wonder why my dad was so closed off. I knew he loved us but he wouldn’t express it as much as other people. It wasn’t until my husband had asked him about his experiences in the war and me hearing about it that it surprised me. It made me understand why my dad was like this as he still had PTSD and just wasn’t the best at sharing his feelings at the time,” said Ngov.
Ngov’s parents managed to escape Cambodia around 1979 by treading through forests and hiding on the sides of mountains at night unaware that their paths would soon cross.
With only a necklace in hand, Sak arrived in Long Beach at the age of 15 with little left of her homeland.
She settled in Long Beach’s Cambodia town alongside her parents and sister.
Following their introduction to one another, Sak and Sok were soon married and pondered how to provide for their growing family. The pair put their skills together and set forth on establishing a business.
“If the two of us are really going to build a life here together and be able to survive, we gotta use your other skills to our advantage,” Sak said to her husband..
Sak managed the business while Sok tapped into his skills as a blacksmith.
The two started by melting down Sak’s necklace, her only remaining tie to Cambodia, and transforming it into a series of rings. They sold these pieces within Cambodia town and began running their business from their home.
Soon, lines formed at their door and as the business continued to thrive, Ngov started helping out her parents and learning how to make jewelry herself.
Ngov would start learning how to make pieces with her mother, unaware that these skills would find her later in life when she set out to start her own business.
“My mom and I would visit stores and pick out pieces of jewelry that we liked and then we would use them to make our own pieces. It was a really great bonding experience,” said Ngov.
Soon after, the family business extended to Ngov’s aunt who owned a jewelry store on Anaheim Boulevard in Cambodia Town.
“We used to be together all the time and I would see firsthand how Marida would engage with the customers. She was always willing to help out and give recommendations on what they should get. I could tell Marida would carry this on,” said Bandith Thai, Ngov’s cousin.
Progress was steady with the business for a while until an unexpected illness sent the family reeling.
Ngov’s father was diagnosed with throat cancer.
It took a while for Ngov to understand what was happening to her father, she thought that he was just sick.
“My parents were always trying to shelter me from the more horrific stuff like their time during the war. This was another example of that. I was 16 at the time and didn’t really know what was going on. I just thought he was really sick,” said Ngov.
With Sok dealing with chemotherapy, he couldn’t continue to make jewelry and Sak took the reins, expanding on her skills to ensure their business survived.
Sak learned how to make pearl necklaces. She became one of the first people to sell pearls to the Cambodian community in Long Beach and business soared.
“The pearls saved us financially, I don’t know if we would have survived if they didn’t sell,” said Sak.
Even though things were looking financially better, the idea of them losing a loved one weighed on Sak.
She didn’t want Ngov to go through the same thing and face the uncertainties of owning a jewelry business.
So Ngov was encouraged to pursue a more secure career.
Ngov decided to move to the pharmaceutical field not just because it was well paying but because she could help her father.
After high school, Ngov briefly attended LBCC before transferring to UCLA where she aimed to get a degree in biochemistry, feeling the pressure to succeed for her family.
Ngov even worked at CVS, a hospital and did some lab work for a while. However as time went on, her enthusiasm began to fade.
“I always thought there were expectations for me and felt like there was a lot of pressure on myself. I realized that I put it all in my head, they (my parents) just wanted me to do well,” said Ngov.
Ngov had decided to go back to what she loved as a kid, the jewelry business. What encouraged her to do this was her time at UCLA.
“My roommate made her own jewelry in different ways, such as delivering and mailing it. It really opened my eyes to the different possibilities. When I think back to it, this is what made me want to go into gemology,” said Ngov.
Her father was accepting of her choice to go to gemology school but her mother was hesitant at first, for fear of her daughter having to struggle the same way that she did.
“The more I look back on it, I’m just glad that I have gone on this path. Running this business has only made my bond with my parents stronger. At one point early into my career, I remember I was able to see my mother and dad every day for three months straight because they wanted to help,” said Ngov.
She started off making things like necklaces, popping up at boutiques and malls to sell them.
Within a few months, she started getting orders as big as 100,000 pieces.
“It even got to the point where my dad would ask if he could help me with making anything. With the support of my parents like this, it just reassured me that I was making the right decision,” said Ngov.
Ngov even traveled to different places around the world like Canada and Japan where she would wholesale to department stores and boutiques. She also continued to grow the business through her online storefront.
In 2018, she opened up her own brick-and-mortar store in downtown Long Beach.
She built a strong community of customers that came to support her.
“I always felt like the customers were my favorite part of the job. Just getting to interact with them always made it worth it. I try to make my products priced around what people can afford, ” said Ngov.
During her time at her store, Marida met Theresa Kim, a fellow business owner who worked at a thrift shop. The two clicked almost instantly and later decided to start a joint venture at a boutique on Norse Way.
“We’re in here for the long haul and we have a lot of similarities, we work very well together. Just the fact that she prioritizes quality goes hand in hand with what I do,” said Kim.
The two of them operate their businesses Marida Jewelry and Skies for Miles Boutique in the same building located on 4405 East Village Road in Long Beach.
Sak visits her daughter and couldn’t be more proud of what she’s achieved.
“It just makes me so happy seeing how much she’s grown as a business. I used to worry but not any more,” said Sak.
To this day, Ngov’s favorite piece of jewelry is a pearl necklace that she made when she was younger. It was made using the same spool that her mother used when she first started making pearl necklaces.
“It was one of the first pieces I’ve made and I feel like it’s so important because I learned a lot from using that spool.”