A father's love and the gifted child

“God made me blind and unable to walk. Big deal. He gave me musical gifts I have and the great opportunity to meet new people.”

In 1998, Patrick Hughes was born crippled and without eyes, no one thought he would achieve anything. But he blessed with a father that would do anything for his son.

One in every 100,000 are born with Bilateral Anophthalmia and one in every 200,000 are born with Pterygium syndrome. Patrick Hughes was born with both.

Besides being blind, he was also bound to a wheelchair due to a tightening of the joints that prevents his limbs from ever straightening.

However this doesn’t stop him from having other talents. It didn’t take long for his parents to notice his incredible aptitude for music. His father introduced him to the piano when he was 9 months old.

After just 1-2 attempts he would learn where a note was no matter where it was on the piano. And when he was 2 year old, he was playing request like “You are my sunshine” and Twinkle little star”. His father as a musician himself was ecstatic. He accepted he wouldn’t play baseball with his son and was over joyed that they would play music together.

As Patrick grew, so did his passion and talent for music. When he started college, a music teacher recommended he join the school orchestra. His father told him, “Patrick, you need to be part of the marching band.” Patrick being skeptical than his father wondered…”how the heck am I supposed to march?” so father and son started to think about ways to make it possible and Patrick sr. decided to give it his all…his son would play and he would push the wheelchair doing everything together practice and a half time alike. To be able to be at every band practice as well as sit beside his son in class, Patrick Sr. works the graveyard shift for UPS. Going to work at 11 p.m. going to sleep at 6 a.m. then up again at 11 a.m. so that when Patrick Jr. gets up in the morning he’s ready to start their day together.

“He’s my hero. I’ve told him before, what he goes through it has taught me that I don’t really have any complaints.” I guess a father couldn’t ask for any more than the relationship that I have with Patrick.  

Father and son share an incredibly strong spirit. When Patrick got the question; “How would you describe your disabilities?” He answered “not disabilities at all, more disabilities.”