Admiration for two people with disabilities who overcame life’s adversities
That is Le Van Vu (32), and Sam Thi Ha (29), both living in My Trach Hamlet, My Thuy Commune, Le Thuy District, Quang Binh. Both were once athletes with disabilities, overcoming many difficulties to rise up and build a good life that many people admire.
From the moment he was born, young Vu had congenital brittle bone disease. Vu’s legs grew ever more withered and swollen in physical pain that, every time he remembers it, makes him wistful: “I thought life would close its doors to me because my legs were not healthy”.
Out of love for their son, Vu’s parents took him for treatment from the south to the north, but in vain. The family was poor and had many children, yet Vu still went to school on the back of a neighbour’s child. Growing up with an impairment, tormented by brittle bone disease, Vu left school after grade 4 because his health was too weak.
Vu’s home is in a river area, with the gentle Kien Giang River flowing through it. On holidays and festivals, his small fishing village holds swimming competitions for the young men of the village. Watching his friends splashing in the cool water, Vu became keen on swimming.
Vu has brittle bone disease, once struggled to make a living, and then joined the Ba Ria – Vung Tau provincial sports team for people with disabilities
So every afternoon Vu secretly went to his friend’s house and made his friend teach him to swim, whatever it took. After many days of struggling and swallowing a great deal of water, Vu finally began to move his body through the river. Even the friend who taught Vu to swim had to marvel at how quickly he progressed.
After that, the family’s difficult life urged Vu to pack his bags and go south to make a living. Far from home, Vu went on crutches to every shop and workshop asking for work. But when they saw that Vu had a disability, everyone shook their heads and refused him.
Fate smiled on him when the owner of a lottery ticket agency in Ba Ria – Vung Tau took him on to sell lottery tickets. On his wheelchair, he roamed the streets and corners making a living.
In the rented room, every time his friend saw Vu come home and sit alone sadly, the friend introduced him to the club for people with disabilities in Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province. When the centre organised a selection for the provincial sports competition, Vu volunteered to try his hand at swimming.
With determination and persistent training, from 2003 to 2010 he won 25 gold medals at various distances for the Ba Ria – Vung Tau provincial sports team at the National Sports Games for People with Disabilities.
Having achieved these praiseworthy results in sport, Vu overcame his lack of confidence and feelings of inferiority and became bolder and more sociable with everyone.
Sitting beside us, Ha looked at her husband Vu and confided that at the age of three, a fever had left her legs withered and from then until now she has had to walk with a limp. Overcoming her feelings of inferiority, she worked hard at her studies and graduated in Literature from Da Lat University. After graduating, she took an office job in Ba Ria – Vung Tau and joined the provincial sports team for people with disabilities.
“Once, when I was taking part in a chess team competing in Ho Chi Minh City, I met Vu, and his confidence and gentle smile as he stepped up to the highest podium to receive his medal truly made me admire him” – Ha opened her heart.
Then, during the months they spent together on the sports team, Vu’s liveliness, energy and care truly moved her.
Vu and Ha are happy now that they have a child in their lives
“Honestly, by then I already liked him, but I’m shy and quiet by nature, so I only dared to care for him through his friends”, Ha said.
The fate of the two seemed to grow when Vu happened to meet Ha while buying books at the shop where she worked extra shifts at night. The two team-mates began to talk more. By the time the stack of books in Vu’s own room grew thicker, the feelings between them had grown too.
At the end of 2010, their wedding was held in grand style, with the blessings of friends from the sports team and both families. Most moving of all, friends from far away, to whom they had not managed to send invitations, also came to share their joy. Life after marriage was full of difficulties as they left the sports team and returned together to Vu’s home village. They opened a small drinks stall by the road and built a small house to live in.
Happiness seemed to multiply, but so did the worry when Ha became pregnant with their first child. “When the pregnancy was six months along, we went for an ultrasound to check the baby’s health. The doctor diagnosed that the baby might have brittle bone disease inherited from me. At that moment, we could only hold each other’s hands and pray that our child would be healthy”, Vu confided.
The baby kept growing in her mother’s womb amid the worries of the couple with disabilities. The day the baby was born was a day of overflowing happiness when the doctor said the baby was completely healthy, weighing 2.4kg.
“We named our child Le Binh An, hoping for a good future for the child. Binh An is also the wish and hope of our whole family for the future”, Ha confided.
Source: Luan An (Kham Pha)