Marble Falls couple’s 56 years together a special love story

JENNIFER FIERRO • PICAYUNE STAFF

MARBLE FALLS — As he sat in his easy chair, looking out the window, Holton George took a breath then turned to a visitor.

“How many people do you know who’ve been married 56 years and had the challenges and responsibility of a deaf and blind child?” he asked.

His wife, Reta, nodded in agreement.

“Whatever we did, whatever decisions we made,” she said, “we asked, ‘How is this going to affect Robby?’”

“For 56 years, we’ve shouldered that responsibility, our challenge,” Holton continued. “It would either draw you closer or drive you away.”

“If it hadn’t been for our faith,” Reta said, “I don’t think we would have (made it.)”

A young love, challenging birth

Holton was 18 when he met a 15-year-old Reta at a church in Grand Prairie. The two dated for two years.

After a year of marriage, the couple had a child. In those days, Reta said, women who were in labor at the same time gave birth in a large room in a hospital. After Robby was born, Reta noticed other mothers were holding their newborns every two hours. But nurses never brought her Robby.

Finally, doctors broke the news to the Georges that still impacts them today: The first examination of their baby boy revealed multiple health concerns, including his heart, sight and hearing.

In time, doctors diagnosed Robby with Char syndrome, a condition that affects the heart, limbs and face.

Because Holton grew up on a farm, he saw animals born with defects, so his take was they’d do everything they could to raise their son to be a contributing member of society.

Reta’s take was different.

“I just cried all the time,” she said. “To see your baby boy in an incubator, it was very hard on me. After he did come home, I never wanted to go anywhere.”

The low point

About the only place the couple went together was church. Reta said when Robby cried, others knew it was different from their own children.

The lowest moment came on a ride home from a doctor’s appointment. Reta said she thought driving right off the road with Robby in the car, killing them both, would be better for Holton.

“I’m not proud of that,” she said. “You really do feel sorry for yourself.”

Holton saw how Robby’s condition took its toll on his wife. She was becoming different from the woman he married. Eventually, Holton spoke to the family’s doctor to get some advice.

The doctor told Holton he believed the best thing for them was to have another child, adding the chances of the couple having another baby like Robby was near impossible.

So a couple of years later, the two had a second son, Daryl. Lisa followed two years later, then Lori and Linde. All four were born with sharp hearing, 20/20 sight and healthy hearts.

Getting Robby help

As the family grew, Robby neared school age. At that time, special education wasn’t offered. Holton said people advised him to move his family to Austin to be closer to state agencies devoted to helping deaf and blind children.

So once a month, Holton trekked to Austin to talk to officials about Robby’s education. But because the boy was both deaf and blind, the two associations dedicated to the blind and deaf batted Holton back and forth between one another like a ping-pong ball. The deaf association referred him to the blind association, which in turn, pointed him back to the deaf officials.

Finally, out of desperation one day, the father vented his frustration. The outburst brought much-needed assistance.

Since Texas lacked a program that addressed special education for deaf and blind children, officials suggested three different schools that specialized in teaching those students.

The Georges settled on the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind at Talledaga and dropped off Robby at age 6. He spent nine months in Alabama and the summers at home for 11 years.

On to New York

Once Robby became completely blind in the late 1990s, he attended the Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults in Long Island, New York, for 13 months. Robby’s ability to retain newly learned material amazed the staff. The Georges asked if he could stay longer at the school so staff could study how they taught him and how he learned to refine their teaching techniques.

Raising Robby, raising each other

The Georges don’t know if genetics or something else played a role in Robby’s condition. They had considered undergoing testing, but the cost was $30,000. And once they had their four other children, they didn’t have a need to know.

Raising a child such as Robby, who still lives with the Georges, might have broken other young couples, but the two grew stronger with faith and love.

“We had each other,” Reta said. “Being young is the blessing. We raised each other.”

“It wasn’t so much about us as a husband and wife,” Holton said. “It was about our special-needs son and us as a father and a mother. The older we’ve gotten, the more we learned from each other…”

“… And toughening it out,” his wife finished the sentence for him. “We have been so blessed. It’s a blessing to be able to tell people our story.”

“So when you look back on the 56 years, (Robby’s condition is) probably the greatest blessing that came our way,” he added. “You grow with the challenges you face.”

jfierro@thepicayune.com