DANH, LIEN's Obituary
Lien Danh, a devoted husband, father, and resilient soul who sacrificed everything to journey across the world to build a better life for his family, passed away on 4/25/2026 in San Diego CA. He was 74 years old.
Born in 1951 in Kien Giang, Vietnam, the youngest of his siblings, Lien's early life was marked by deep spirituality and service. At a young age, he answered a calling to become a monk, dedicated to education and faith. However, as the world around him changed, so did his path. He transitioned from the monastery to military service, eventually serving as a police officer in judicial investigation.
In 1973, he married the love of his life, Lai Thi. Their early years together were tested by the arrival of the VC (Việt Cộng) and the fall of Saigon in 1975, leading to a period of imprisonment due to his military connections. Upon his release, despite being well educated, he didn't have a choice but to work tirelessly as a farmer to support his family.
Driven by the hope for a better future, knowing the VC would always hold his family back from any type of higher education and/or success, Lien, after convincing his wife (Lai), made the courageous decision to leave Vietnam with his wife, 5 young children, and brother in-law in 1985. His journey to freedom took him and his family through Cambodia and eventually to Thailand, where he navigated them across treacherous waters on a boat he purchased, arriving at the first refugee camp in Klong Luang, Thailand. Afterwards they were moved to refugee camps in Phanat Nikhum, Thailand and then to Morong Bataan, Philippines, before finally settling in San Diego in September 1988, almost 3 years after they started.
In San Diego, Lien embraced his new home and life with a diligent work ethic, to anything he did, notably working for 23 years, night and day, delivering newspapers for the San Diego Union-Tribune. Despite the trials and tribulations of life, he taught his family good values and morals, through honesty, respect, responsibility, compassion and loyalty at the highest levels. Putting a strong emphasis on hard work and education, knowing even though he brought his family over with nothing, setting them up with these values would open up opportunities and their best chance for success, despite if that meant he had to give up everything in the life he knew in Vietnam to come to America. There was nothing he loved more than his family, always putting them first, the true definition of self sacrifice.
He was a pillar of strength for his family and took immense joy in his role as a husband, father, and grandfather. He is survived by his wife (Lai Thi), his five children, eight grandchildren and one sister.
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