Posted by LilForest Handmade gift
on January 25, 2025
Born in 1998, Thế Sơn lost his left hand as a child, but he never let that loss write the story of who he is. From hiding in shame to standing in quiet brilliance, his journey at Lilforest is living proof that true strength isn’t measured by what’s missing—it’s measured by everything you choose to create anyway.
An Incomplete Hand, a Heart That Learned to Hide
The first thing strangers notice is the left arm that ends just past the wrist. For years, it was the thing Sơn tried hardest to make invisible.
He dodged cameras. He kept that hand buried deep in pockets whenever he stepped outside. Behind the calm face he showed the world was a storm of fear—fear of pitying glances, fear of being labeled “different,” fear that people would only ever see the absence instead of the person.
But forests don’t grow by hiding from the light. And Sơn was about to find his.
Sơn at Work – Decals, Precision, Pride (Photo: Lilforest)
“There was a time I truly believed I couldn’t do anything.” Sơn quietly admits. But in the moments he felt most lost, he chose motion over stillness—working in mechanics, crafting gemstone art—anything to remind himself that one hand, held steady by determination, is still enough to shape beauty.
A Turning Point Hidden in the Smallest Details
At the end of 2024, a simple introduction from the Hanoi Association of People with Disabilities brought Sơn to Lilforest. What he found wasn’t just a job—it was a place that listened without judgment, shared without hesitation, and believed in him before he fully believed in himself again.
In the production studio, his single hand moves with calm mastery, placing every decal with the care of an artist signing his name. The work gives him steady income, independence, and something far rarer: permission to live openly, unapologetically, as he is.
When the workday ends, Sơn trades moss for motion. Disc golf, air-rifle shooting—sports where he’s claimed medals that silence every lingering doubt. To him, each victory is another quiet declaration: the body may be incomplete, but the spirit inside it is boundless.
Sơn, Fully at Ease Among Friends (Photo: Lilforest)
A Home Built on Gentle Kindness
“At Lilforest, I never feel different.” Sơn says, his smile easy and unguarded.
Here, every person is a unique fragment of a greater mosaic—each shape, each story, cherished exactly as it is. To Sơn, Lilforest isn’t merely a workplace. It’s home: a living, breathing space where respect is the air we share, where he can stand tall without hiding, and where he has learned, once and for all, that a hand may be incomplete… yet everything it touches can still be made whole, and beautiful, and true.
