Blind musician shares insight on life

Born with no eyes and crippling physical anomalies, Patrick Henry Hughes has had to overcome many obstacles. In his new book, “I Am Potential,” the successful pianist and trumpeter offers the eight lessons he’s learned about staying positive and recognizing potential. An excerpt.

Chapter one: When life gives you lemons, accept them and be grateful
My name is Patrick Henry Hughes, and I came into this world on March 10, 1988. My birthday should have been the best day ever for my mom and dad, but it turned out to be a pretty rough one. The day after my birthday was even worse.

Dad had gone home to shower and shave, then came back to the hospital and arrived at Mom’s room just as the pediatrician walked in. Mom says the doctor seemed nervous and kept looking down at a chart he was holding tightly with both hands. Then he’d look at me curled up in her arms. When the doctor started talking, his voice broke and he had to stop and clear his throat.

There were problems. The medical team had learned some things about my health, but there was still a lot they didn’t know and they’d need to do more tests.

After what seemed like forever, the doctor told them my condition looked as if it could be dwarfism. “X-rays suggest it might be short-limb dysplasia and a disproportionate truncated structure,” he explained. Dad asked him to speak English.

“The arms and legs are shorter than you would expect by looking at the rest of his body. That’s one problem ... ” He paused and checked his chart again. “And there’s more.” He waited for my parents to give him the go-ahead.

“I’m sorry to be the one to tell you. Your baby has inherited an extremely rare condition. He doesn’t have eyes.”

My mother had thought I was just taking my time before I opened my eyes. When Mom recalls that day, she says the doctor’s words were like being socked in the stomach, because she lost her breath.

The doctor continued, “I regret to say there’s still more you need to know ... when you’re ready.” And then there was another seemingly interminable pause. When he continued, both Mom and Dad couldn’t believe their ears.

Dad held my mom and me. “It’s not fair!” Mom sobbed. “I did everything I could to make sure our baby would be healthy.” Dad wondered, Why would God do this to us?

Thankfully, God gave him the answer a few years later.

On the day I was born, you might say I arrived carrying a bag full of lemons, not the kind of thing my family had in mind. I think they would have preferred oranges; they’re sweeter and have less bite. But life is what it is and you just have to keep going. You can’t change lemons into oranges, no matter how hard you try. But just because you can’t do that doesn’t mean you give up. Mom and Dad taught me you have to hang in there and learn to deal with what happens to you. And once you do, you discover that lemons are pretty cool and you can make something better out of them, like lemon meringue pie. One of my favorites.

My parents were my earliest and best teachers. But before they could teach me about acceptance, they had to learn it themselves. It wasn’t easy, and to hear them tell it, they had to go through a crash course that started with letting go of their hopes and dreams, and especially their dreams for me.

Pretty tough, but you can’t move forward unless you’re willing to accept where you are.

At the moment I was born, Dad didn’t know what to expect. Maybe he didn’t expect anything, because he was so caught up with the emotions. All he knows is the first words he heard were not the predictable, “Congratulations, you are the proud parents of a healthy baby boy!” Instead, at first, nobody said anything, and it got really quiet. Kind of strange, he thought. Then he heard something about “multiple anomalies.” He always likes to joke, so he asked, “What the heck are those?” But at the time, he really didn’t know.

He watched the doctor and nurses off to the side talking among themselves, but he didn’t ask them what was going on, not wanting to appear ignorant or as if he were meddling in their business. After all, he’d seen fingers and toes and all the right stuff he could take in during the brief, hectic moment I came into the world. I was his first child, so he assumed the word “anomaly” must be some generic medical term that applied to newborns.

Dad watched while the nurse wiped me off, wrapped me up in blankets, and gave me to Mom. My eyelids were closed, and my mother thought I looked like all the other newborn babies she’d ever seen. She gets emotional when she talks about back then. “I just loved holding you and wanted to keep us right there, just like we were,” she told me. But after only a minute, the staff told her they needed to get me to the nursery right away. She didn’t like it one bit, but she assumed they knew best and held her tongue, which if you know my mom wasn’t an easy thing for her. Especially when it came to me.

Meanwhile, Dad was more awake and alert, and the more he saw going on, the more he began to question whether the activity was routine. He was told to hurry to the nursery, but when he got there, they made him wait outside. As he waited, he became increasingly concerned about why they separated me from Mom so quickly. Shouldn’t there be some sort of bonding process going on right after birth? And there was a flurry of doctors coming and going, rushing right past him as though he wasn’t standing there. He tried to catch somebody’s eye, hoping one of the staff would stop and tell him something, but they just kept going. With each passing minute, Dad’s fear grew.

MORE FROM TODAY BOOKS: BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIRS

Born without legs, living with ‘double takes’

Born without legs, living with ‘double takes’ Brother West: ‘Being true to the funk of living’ Andre Agassi: I have the body of an old man Former Miss California: I was smeared How dog poop led to love for Paula Deen After having 15 abortions, motherhood saved her Book excerpt: Testimony of an abortion addict Alan Thicke on raising kids who won’t hate you ‘Full House’ star writes about meth, coke binges Parents share diary of child’s cancer battle   Add Today Books: Biography/Memoirs headlines to your news reader: