Friday, February 01, 2008

Patrick Henry in the Marching Band

“PATRICK HENRY IS GOING TO BE IN MARCHING BAND.” That’s the word that went through the family, followed by, “Yeah, right!”

For a while now, I have wanted to tell you about my 20-year-old grandnephew, Patrick Henry, and his family. In a modest way, they are famous. And that is just what has kept me from talking about them. It’s not my fame; I’m just a hanger-on by accident of birth, and I couldn’t figure out how to tell you about them without violating my mama’s dictates about name-dropping or trying to capitalize on the accomplishments of others. She would have said, “We don’t do that; it’s just not nice.”

I’m gonna’ do it anyway, because Patrick Henry is in marching band.

First, in the mode of the Russian novel, you’ll need a flow chart to keep the characters straight. Patrick John is the son of my sister, Patricia, a.k.a.: Pat, and her husband, Arch. Patrick married Patricia, a.k.a.: Patty. They had a son, Patrick. OK: 3 generations, 4 “Pats.” In the last case, not out of patriotic frenzy, but to keep almost everyone in the room from saying, “What?” when you said, “Pat,” he is called Patrick Henry: named after his father and his grandfather, introduced to you as “Arch” earlier, but really Henry Arch.

So, you have this little blonde baby, burdened with the moniker, Patrick Henry. That, however, is the least of his troubles; he’s blind, not just unsighted, but lacking eyeballs. A challenge, but we’re a starchy Anglo-Saxon family, so we pulled up our socks and got on with it. His mother, Patty, and his Granny, Pat, his first “baby-sitters,” ensured that he had plenty of stimulation through being cuddled, read to, and given textured, squeaking, bell-ringing, talk-to-you toys. And, his father, Patrick John, a musician, would calm and amuse Patrick Henry during baby-upset moments by placing him on the top of the upright piano and playing.

By 18 months, Patrick Henry could sit in his high chair at the piano and pick out tunes. There is fuzzy-by-now, video footage of him playing “Twinkle, Twinkle.” You can see it on You Tube: one of about 267 thousand possibilities if you “Google” “Patrick Henry Hughes.”

Although born blind, and it developed, unable to walk, Patrick Henry was given opportunities to develop his life his own way. One path he chose is music. Through childhood and adolescence, he honed his skill and traveled domestically and worldwide, gathering awards and recognition as a “disabled” pianist. In middle-school, he added trumpet to his skill-set.

Looking for a way to use his music when he entered the University of Louisville, pep band was his choice. At the interview, Dr. Greg Byrne, an associate band director, told him that he had to be in marching band to join pep band. Not wanting to be rude, the Patricks, though thinking, “Have you not noticed that he’s blind, and in a wheelchair?!” waited and then heard the visionary suggestion that they become one. Patrick Henry would play the music and Dad, Patrick John, would push him in his chair through the formations: a two-for-one band member. It happened. They’ve gotten a certain amount of media notice from it: even being interviewed on NPR by Noah Adams. So much notice, in fact, that they became candidates for that ABC, Sunday-night, television program, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” Local volunteerism and donations built a new home for them at no monetary cost.

You ever see this program? I hadn’t, but after the family experience, I’ve watched and am pretty horrified. You go along thinking of your family as regular folks; then something unusual happens, and you are cast outside of your pre-conceptions. It’s a dope-slap. As a family, we don’t see ourselves as pitiful and needy, except, of course, in the big-picture, human-needs connotations, but we think that that’s how that part of our family is going to look on national television. The house is a very good thing, but there are psychological costs. As C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “Besides being complicated, reality, in my experience, is usually odd. It is not neat, not obvious, not what you expect.”

So, in violation of my mama’s direction, I’m bragging about my family and telling you to judge for yourself. Their story and their fancy new house, as opposed to their old, not-built-for-disabled-people home, are scheduled to be shown on Sunday evening, February 17th. As Patrick Henry says, “We’ll see.”

Broadcast by Jeanette Saddler Taylor on February 01, 2008
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