Family trip around world for Canadian kids losing vision has ended. Here’s what happened | 24CA News
When a pair of Canadian dad and mom discovered three of their 4 youngsters will regularly lose their imaginative and prescient on account of a uncommon genetic illness, they have been devastated.
Edith Lemay and Sébastien Pelletier went via a grieving course of — rife with disappointment, anger and a seek for a miracle for retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary situation with out a treatment. As their new actuality sank in they usually accepted the prognosis, the dad and mom got here up with a once-in-a-lifetime concept for his or her household of six.
“That’s their path — let’s make the best out of it,” Lemay mentioned from their Quebec residence Tuesday. “That’s when you can go on with your life.”
Lemay and Pelletier determined to take their 4 youngsters — Mia, 11; Léo, 9; Colin, 7; and Laurent, 5, — on a visit to see the world. Léo, their eldest son, is the one one with out the gene.
The Lemay-Pelletier household in Bali throughout their journey.
Courtesy of Lemay-Pelletier household
At first, the aim was to fill the youngsters’ visible reminiscences with “beautiful things” earlier than their eyesight falters. As they got down to discover, it rapidly advanced into an much more enriching expertise. Aside from taking in attractive landscapes, they met new individuals, found totally different cultures and discovered about different methods of life.
“Over and above the visual memories that they got, I think they got a great human experience altogether,” Pelletier mentioned.
Plans have been made, and scrapped a number of instances, because the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded however the household finally boarded a flight in March 2022 to Africa. Lemay documented their travels with nice care, sharing photographs and movies of magical moments with the web world.
From driving noisy dune buggies via the Gobi desert to watching in awe as a lion slowly ate its prey on a Namibian safari, they did all types of actions throughout their time overseas. Their boys have been even fortunately stunned with a visit to Legoland in Malaysia.
The six of them packed in dazzling sunsets and hikes over the span of a yr in locations like Thailand and Namibia. At one level, the household determined to go to Nepal and Oman round Christmas to slowly wrap up their journey.
The Lemay-Pelletier youngsters in Thailand as a part of their year-long household journey.
Courtesy of the Lemay-Pelletier household
Aside from giving their youngsters a possibility to soak up totally different components of the world, each mother and pop additionally skilled on a regular basis moments via their children’ pleasure. Their son Colin beloved his keep at a lodge in Zanzibar as a result of 5 cats lived there and it’s a reminiscence he cherishes.
“As parents, you also evolve and seeing, you know, you see it through different eyes,” Pelletier mentioned. “And seeing anything can be amazing — not just the big things or the big temples or the big sights.”
As their year-long, magical journey got here to an finish in April, the household is pleased to be again residence in Quebec. The dad and mom are open with their youngsters concerning the uncommon eye illness to allow them to assist each other when the time comes and so dropping their imaginative and prescient doesn’t come as an entire shock.
They take into account themselves fortunate in a method.
“There is always a chance that something’s going to happen to your child,” Lemay mentioned. “You might have a disease. So at least we see it coming.
“We have time to prepare and, in a sense, it’s a blessing. Like, that trip is a blessing in its own right.”
— with information from Global News’ Mike Armstrong and Amanda Jelowicki
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
