Gerry and his son Wyatt have a typical father/son relationship. They do things together like golfing and working out. One of their favorite activities is attending ice hockey games together. While in the stands, Wyatt gives his father verbal play by play details of the game. That’s because Gerry is blind.
Gerry lost his sight from diabetes before Wyatt was born. And while Wyatt’s younger years as a baby and toddler certainly presented parenting challenges, according to Gerry those challenges weren’t much more than sighted parents often experience. Changing diapers was one of the more tricky tasks.
“To any other blind fathers out there I recommend that you go in expecting to get dirty, but you know what? It all washes off.”
When it came to feeding his son as a baby, Gerry says, “If I could get the spoon close enough to Wyatt’s mouth, Wyatt would take care of the rest.” Gerry and Wyatt often spent time alone together in the early years, and Gerry shares how he would use verbal cues to know where his son was in the house. “He didn’t realize you know, not only was I talking to him and interacting with him but it was also my way of pinpointing exactly where he was and what he was doing,” says Gerry.
Of course, both Gerry and Wyatt have had to deal with the awkward questions from outsiders who have trouble understanding how Gerry can be an effective parent.
People have often asked Wyatt questions like, “Has your dad ever seen your face? Does your dad know what you look like?” Wyatt’s answer is “No, but he knows what I look like in a different sense.”
“I wish that people would understand that the disability, when you get right down to it, has absolutely very little to nothing to do with [parenting],” says Gerry. “You parent your child because you are a father or a mother. People with disabilities parent each and every day.”
Gerry demonstrates that with only moderate adaptations, parenting is just one of the areas of his life he is successfully navigating.