Joseph Shay (Carly's Father)

Joseph Shay (born April 17th, 1951) is a South-Korean-American in the U.S navy.

Early Life
Shay was born as Pin-Lao Shay in Seoul, Korea. His father was Taiwanese and his mother was Cambodian. His parents, however, had very strict rules about their foreign heritages. They were never permitted to speak Chinese or Khemer at home, even though all three knew it fluently.

His father was not there when he was born. He was serving in the South Korean military during the Korean War. He and his mother hid away in their house until 1957, when they fled to Cambodia.

Life in Cambodia
Shay attended Pin Menhao Elementary School in Phonom Penh. He learned in Korean, and his mother planned to move immidately back to South Korea soon. After eight years in Cambodia, he and his mother moved back to South Korea in 1965, when he was fourteen years old.

Upon finding out about the death of her husband, Lu-Jiani Shay (American Olivia Shay) was astonished.

Religion
He started out in a tolerant Buddhist family. He and his mother went to temple every single day and prayed to Bhudda. In 1963, he and his mother converted to Roman Catholicism, and they became a very strict, tolerant Roman Catholic family.

After the conversion, the family prayed to God and went to church every day and always had a Resurrection in their homes.

Breakup with Mother
Shay and his mother had a huge falling out on his twentieth birthday in 1971. He claimed his mother was "to overprotective" and "to sensitive" and that he had to not become his mother. He signed a paper on October 16th, 1971, and said that he was not able to be her son, and he had to be independent.

Move to Europe
After the falling out with his mother in 71', he decided to cancel his South Korean citizenship. In the November of 1971, he moved to Tuscany, Italy, where he met Maria de Pinto, and it was love at first site.

The couple dated and dated, and he proposed to her in 1974.

Marraige and move to Czechoslovakia
The couple moved to Prague, Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic, before their marraige. They looked around and married at St. Cesky's Immaculate Basilica Shrine of the Czecholslovak Roman Catholic Church of the Czechoslovak Communist State, where they were married. His wife got pregnant the next night.

Spencer
Maria and Giuseppe (who had changed his name to that upon the Italian move) had Spencer Shay in 1977, in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Spencer attended St. Cesky Roman Catholic school and was taught in strict Czech. The family, however, spoke Korean and Italian fluently at home, and they were pretty much the only Koreans and Italians in Prague, becoming minorites.

Maria's Next Baby
Maria got pregnant sixteen years later in Prague. The couple decided to move to Seattle, Washington, United States, another international move. After the birth of her daughter, Carly, in 1993, Maria died in childbirth.

Joining the Navy
When Joseph, now devastated by the death of his wife, saw an opening for the U.S navy, he automatically took it-hoping he would become distracted. After the U.S declared war on Afghanistan in 2003, he was deployed to a submarine three miles underwater off the coast of Afghanistan. 10-year old Carly and 23-year old Spencer now lived alone. They were told, if a stranger came up to them, to speak Czech, but Carly didn't because she said it didn't make her safe, it made her a foreigner.