The man standing on "golden hands"

The old wheelchair is Mr. Tan's companion through many hardships. Photo: Le Thao

Learn to walk on your hands

In a house of only 15m²With the wet ground and mud stains around the walls from the flood in the second half of last year, the sound of the flour mill still running regularly mixed with the squeaking of the sewing machine.

Hearing the sound of guests coming, Mr. Tan pushed open the rickety old wooden door, quickly put his hands into the yellowish honeycomb sandals. He put on the sandals with his hands. His legs were curled up, crossed in a V shape. He crawled step by step with his sandal-wearing hands “taking over” the work of his calloused, paralyzed legs.

Pouring a bowl of warm green tea, Mr. Tan emotionally recounted his life of hardship since birth.

He was born in 1958, when he was over 1 year old and just taking his first steps in life, he had a fever for many days. At first, his parents thought that fever was normal for children, but after many days without improvement, his father was shocked and took his son to Bach Mai Hospital (Hanoi). On an old bicycle, his father frantically pedaled his little son over hundreds of kilometers hoping for timely treatment. But it was all too late. In addition, the family was too poor, day by day having to rely on cassava and sweet potatoes, so where did they get money to treat the disease? Everyone swallowed their tears as their son's legs gradually shriveled up to paralysis.

At that time, little Tan was too young to understand what had happened and what would happen around his life. Then Tan grew up and had to accept life with legs but not being able to walk.

Despite being paralyzed, Tan always dreamed of going to school, and at that time, a wheelchair was a luxury for him. Therefore, every day, his parents took turns carrying him to school. When he was in high school, the school was too far away, the already arduous journey to school became even more difficult, so he had to sadly drop out of school and stay at home.

Overcoming fate

By self-studying, Mr. Tan became a good tailor in the village. Photo: Le Thao

Although he could not walk on two legs like normal people, Mr. Tan's spirit of learning and will to overcome difficulties never faded. At the age of 8, he taught himself how to weave. Through the times he crawled to his neighbor's house to play, he saw them whittling bamboo sticks and splitting rattan fibers, so he came home and learned how to do the same. Gradually, he was able to weave baskets, trays, and crates to sell at the market to earn money to help his parents.

Mr. Tan started weaving at the age of 8, and he still does it when customers request. Photo: Le Thao

At the age of 25, he learned sewing. At first, he learned from tailors near his house, but gradually they chased him away for fear of losing their jobs. He had to weave baskets and baskets to earn money to buy books to learn sewing himself. At first, he did small jobs like sewing buttons and mending zippers. There were days when he ran out of tools to learn, so he crawled on his hands to tailor shops to ask for tools to practice.

Seeing his passion for tailoring, his parents borrowed money from relatives to buy him a sewing machine in the hope that he could find a job. Thanks to that, his skills improved day by day, and more and more people came to him to make a shirt or mend a pair of pants. This gave him another reason to be happy.

In 1994, his younger brother Nguyen Ba Nghia bought him a hand-held wheelchair. The wheelchair was like a friend supporting him: “Since I got the wheelchair, I am very happy, I can go to the district to get goods for sewing instead of borrowing or asking from other stores. Nowadays, there are many types of wheelchairs, beautiful and convenient, everyone says I should throw away the old wheelchair, but I consider it a friend and cannot let it go. Buying a new wheelchair costs money, that money is for giving my children more knowledge, ma'am" - Mr. Nguyen Ba Tan smiled contentedly.

Villagers call Mr. Tan a multi-talented person. He can sew, weave, make incense, and even open a milling business. Photo: Le Thao

Having mastered sewing, in 1994, having a vehicle, Mr. Tan groped to learn the trade of dry flour milling. Thanks to the money he had saved and borrowed 1.5 million VND from his neighbors, he bought a flour mill. Villagers no longer had to go far, but could just come to Mr. Tan's house to get flour to feed their chickens, ducks or make cakes. If the flour brought to him for grinding had not been sifted yet, he would carefully clean it before grinding it. The customers were very satisfied.

Not only knitting, sewing, and milling flour, he also makes incense. In 2000, after watching a friend make incense, he went home and bought books to learn by himself. During holidays, people come to mill flour to make cakes and buy incense. He focuses on choosing natural ingredients to make incense, so he is also loved by the people in the area. "Making incense, the profit also helps to keep the capital, but adding a job is more fun, I do the job to help myself and help my neighbors" - Mr. Tan shared.

Exemplary husband and father

Happy moment of Mr. Tan and his wife. Photo: Le Thao

I met Mr. Tan's wife - Mrs. Luong Thi Tu (born in 1957) when she had just returned home with a load of grass. The couple looked at each other with eyes and smiles full of happiness, making outsiders feel the great love between them.

In 1992, one time, when she went to Mr. Tan's house to buy a basket of grass, she saw the man, although paralyzed in both legs, still skillfully weaving bamboo and rattan strips. Mrs. Tu admired him. But that love was forbidden by her family. "At that time, my brother told me that if I were to marry, I would marry a normal person, why would I marry a cripple?" - she wiped away her tears and remembered. But having fallen in love with a talented and strong-willed man, the girl Luong Thi Tu decided to decide her life. A wedding without a happy celebration meal, without a single blessing, but instead, the children and siblings of her own blood relatives turned their backs on her.

Since getting married, understanding his wife, Mr. Tan has always tried to build a family, he helps his wife with taking care of chickens, pigs, cooking rice and soup. He also learned how to make wine to help his wife. During harvest season, unable to go to the field to carry rice, he sits down next to the threshing machine, passing each bundle of rice to his wife, helping her bend down, which adds to her back pain.

The result of that beautiful love is 3 daughters who are gentle, well-behaved, and studious. They have been excellent students for many years, received Certificates of Merit from Nghe An province, and have been admitted to top universities in the country.

“One day, Nguyen (youngest daughter) came home from school and saw me cutting bananas to feed the chickens. She said she would do it, but she was tired from school. I told her to rest so her father could finish. I felt so sorry for her. I was also happy to have my children.” - the man’s face lit up in the small house.

The day he heard that his eldest daughter had been admitted to the College of Economics, he personally rolled his rickety wheelchair more than 10 kilometers to the district to get the paperwork for his daughter to enroll. It was raining, the road was muddy, he had to push the wheelchair for a long time to get going, and when he got home at night his hands were sore, but he was happy because his daughter studied well and had grown up. Then his second child was admitted to the Academy of Finance, his third child was admitted to the Hanoi University of Pharmacy, still on the same wheelchair he rolled more than 10 kilometers to get the paperwork for his daughter to enroll.

He is planning to learn electrical repair when his youngest daughter comes back. He said that having a new job means having a new life, and having a job will help his wife and children have a warmer, more comfortable life.

Saying goodbye to a simple meal of eggplant soup and pickled vegetables with his family, I returned with warmth and admiration for the man with a bright smile and steady willpower in his hands.