A lot of people love taking pictures of their new babies and sharing them with other people. The same was true for Patricia Williams. She loved her son so much that she took cute pictures of him. But when she tried to share these pictures with other people, she got a bad news.
Patricia had her boy Redd in 2012. Even though the baby boy had white hair from birth, his mother didn’t notice anything odd about him until he was two months old.
In order to find out why their son was moving his eyes from side to side, Patricia’s husband Dale did a search on Google. This surprised them when they learned that it was a common sign of albinism. Patricia had never heard of this illness before, so she wasn’t sure at first. But Redd had all the classic signs of albinism, like pale skin, white hair, and eyes that moved back and forth.
The couple chose to see an optometrist and genetic specialists to get a formal report. Redd was found to have Oculocutaneous Albinism Type one (OCA1), a rare disease that impacts 1 in 17,000 people around the world.
Patricia remembers how happy everyone was at the hospital when Redd was born. Everyone was excited to see the blue-eyed baby with white hair. At the time, Patricia didn’t think much of it because she, her husband, and their first child, Gage, all had blonde hair.
Patricia saw that Redd’s hair was very white and shining in the sun a month after she brought him home. He would still look at things and never look away, even when she tried to cover his eyes. He also had beautiful blue eyes that sometimes looked red in certain lights.
At first, Patricia thought that her son would grow out of these unique traits. It became clear to her when her second son was born with the same features. It would be a permanent part of their family.
Rockwell was born in February 2018 with the same problem as his bigger brother. On social media, mean memes were made from shots of him the day he was born.
Redd was also picked on at school because of how he looked, so his bigger brother Gage stood up for him. The family knew about albinism and was ready for it, but they weren’t ready for Rockwell’s pictures to become a joke.
At first, Dale and Patricia tried to get everyone to delete the picture, but they soon learned that they couldn’t. So, they decided to completely ignore what was going on.
Patricia was very sad when doctors confirmed that Redd was albinism. Because of this, they decided to become advocates for albinism, spreading information about it so that kids with it wouldn’t have to deal with being picked on because they are different.
Being different made her worry about how the child would be treated and how their family would change with a child who could get burnt easily and might be legally blind.
She made Rockwell’s important attention clear. She said, “It’s not often you see a baby with white hair, and Rockwell’s hair stands up straight, making it stand out.”
A lot of people started following her after pictures of her son went viral and turned into a joke. Soon after, people started asking her about her son’s looks, which made her understand that many people didn’t know about albinism.
She knew that most people’s knowledge of albinism came from a few movies that didn’t show much of the condition. She realized she had a unique chance to make people more aware of albinism.
With surgery, Redd was able to fix his crossed eyes. He then switched schools from a private one for blind kids to a public one. The surgery was a great move for Redd’s family because it made his health much better.
Redd didn’t wear an eye patch because it would have made him stand out and drawn unwanted attention to him. Instead, he had surgery. As Redd aged, his friends became less and less interested in what made him special.
Redd was like any other kid; he had to wear a hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen to play outside. Rocky, his younger brother, also did very well.
Patricia put up a film of Rockwell on April 28, 2023, during his school’s “Western Day.” This time, a lot of people loved and admired the young boy on social media. A lot of people said he was “adorable” and “cute.”
Patricia explained that a lot of people think that people with albinism have red eyes when they actually have light blue eyes because they don’t have enough pigment.
We are so happy for this wonderful family. Feel free to share this story with your Facebook friends. They’ll love it for sure!