There are little miracles that happen around us every day; luckily, some of them take place on TV and are able to be documented by cameras. One incredible miracle occurred recently on the Rachael Ray Show, where a blind man got a beautiful gift that he never expected.
Gene, a man who lives in Denver, has a beautiful wife named Joy and a newborn baby named Lincoln. Everything is going well in his life except for one minor detail: he has never seen the adoring faces of his wife and son. This is because sixteen years ago, Gene was diagnosed with a condition called Stargardt disease. This condition causes progressive vision loss in those afflicted, and in many cases people who have Stargardt become entirely blind.
Because Gene has Stargardt disease, he can only see faded outlines of images and faint glimpses around the edge of his field of vision. For a long time, there has been no cure for Stargardt disease, and its onset eventually spelled doom for the photoreceptor cells in the eye’s retina.
As luck would have it, one day Joy was watching an episode of Rachael Ray in which a man with Stargardt disease was given the power of sight through the application of a special pair of electronic glasses. After Joy reached out to the show’s producers, desperate for any kind of answer, the show wrote back and invited her into the studio!
Gene, Joy and Lincoln showed up to the studio, unsure of what was about to happen — but what did happen changed their lives forever. Gene was given the special glasses and was finally able to see his wife and baby boy. As the audience roared its approval, Gene struggled to find any words to sum up the massive revelations his brain was having. Finally, he managed to squeak out, “She’s pretty.” Many in the audience, including Rachael Ray herself, were so touched by this display of emotion that tears began to well in their eyes.
The restoration of the power of sight is an incredibly power life experience, even more so for Gene, Joy and Lincoln because their experience happened live on TV. The rest of the reveal alternated between joyful cries and tearful sobs, as the family struggled to keep its composure after such a miraculous occurrence.