Family travels the world before their children go blind
A few years ago, Edith and Sebastien received terrible news: three of their four children have a rare condition, which eventually leaves them very visually impaired or even blind. To make as many visual memories as possible, the family now travels the world.
Three out of four children in the Canadian family were diagnosed retinitis pigmentosa, which refers to a group of hereditary diseases of the retina. Because the retina slowly breaks down, you can eventually become very visually impaired or blind.
on a world trip
The eye disease was first discovered in daughter Mia (12), later also in sons Colin (7) and Laurent (5). Only in 9-year-old Leo nothing was found. Unfortunately, there is no treatment to cure retinitis pigmentosa or delay the disease. “We don’t know how fast it goes, but we expect that they will be blind halfway through their lives,” mother Edith told cnn. They therefore decide to make as many visual memories as possible, while they still can. “I thought, I don’t want to show her (daughter Mia, ed.) an elephant in a book, I want to take her to see a real elephant. And I want to fill her visual memories with the most beautiful images.”
Difficult conversation
And so the family makes a decision: they are going on a world trip for a year. “We can do great things at home, but nothing beats traveling,” says Sebastien. Due to the corona pandemic, they will leave later than expected, in March 2022. The family has already visited quite a few countries, from Tanzania and Turkey to Mongolia and Indonesia. The trip is of course intended to see as much of the world as possible, but also to make the children more resilient. “You can learn from travelling. It’s fun, but it can also be tough. You may experience discomfort, be fatigued or frustrated,” Edith continues. She recently had a difficult conversation with her son. “My youngest recently asked, ‘Mom, what does it mean to be blind? Can I drive then?’ He is only five, but he understands more and more what is happening. It was a normal conversation for him, but heartbreaking for me.”
Also read: ‘During our holiday in Thailand we decided to make a world trip’
Satisfying
Finally, Edith and Sebastien hope to teach their children that nothing in life is self-evident. “I want to show that they can be grateful that water flows from the tap and that they can go to school every day with beautiful colored books.” Although there is no cure for the eye disease now, they hope it will be different in the future. “We keep our fingers crossed for that.”
Curious about what the Canadian family experiences on their world trip? They share beautiful images of their adventure on Instagram.
Source: CNN
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