*Wow. Talk about a heart tugging story and sight. Break out the Kleenex.
12-year-old Christopher Ward who has been legally blind since birth, just saw his mother, Marquita Hackley, for the very first time.
“Oh, mommy, there you are!” Christopher said, after putting on a pair of $15,000 eSight electronic glasses. The headset records video live, which is then displayed on an LED screen right in front of the user’s eyes.
That right there was all it took. Hackley was all tears after that.
“And then to hear him say, ‘I saw my mom, and she was very pretty,’ was so heartwarming,” Hackley, 32, told ABC News. “And aside from pretty, just the fact he could even see me means the whole world to me.”
Christopher was born with optic nerve hypoplasia, which means he can only see objects from really up close.
Hackley heard about eSight’s electronic glasses from his vision tutor, and traveled with her son to Washington, D.C., for a trial demonstration. She was astonished when Christopher finally saw her via the screen.
“As a mother going 12 years with your child not being able to clearly see, I don’t really have words for it,” she told the New York Daily News.
Christopher also got to watch his favorite TV show, “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
Unfortunately, Hackley couldn’t afford to buy the glasses. So she set up a crowdfunding page on YouCaring.com — and after the segment on their trip aired on ABC News on Thursday, it quickly surpassed its initial $15,000 goal. The total now stands at $25,241.
She plans to order her son his own pair of the electronic glasses as soon as possible. The rest of the cash will go into a trust fund so that he can eventually go to college.
“I want to say thank you a million times to each and every one of you that have donated,” Hackley posted on the crowdfunding page. “Each of you have helped us shatter the goal! Thank you again and God Bless!”
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