Laoma Souphanousinphone is Kahn's mother and Minh's mother-in-law. Like the Souphanousinphone family, she immigrated from Laos to escape "communist dictatorship" as Kahn has mentioned.
Description
Laoma is the only character Kahn has complete affection for and cares most about. While Laoma has immigrated to America from Laos, she has no reason for seeking status as the rest of the Souphanousinphone family does, her sole joy of being in America is that she has liberty and no communist oppressors. Instead, she wishes to be a housewife and mend the house, only Minh does not allow as it would be challenging her role as the woman of the house. While in Arlen , Laoma is uninterested in looking for a hobby, but going to work, using the skills she had when working as a maid in Laos. When Laoma learns that Peggy Hill dislikes housework, Laoma proposes being the maid for the Hill family in exchange for an affordable salary, to which Peggy and Hank find beneficial. While Kahn sees Laoma's love for cleaning as meaningless labor, Minh sees it as an opportunity to rid of her for her own personal time. She eventually falls in love with Bill, after cleaning the house and caring for him, as she is a widow and without a spouse like Bill. Kahn finds this relationship repulsive and had temporarily broken up the two by claiming Laoma had an affair with Harrison Schmitt.