TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- Viral videos are a dime a dozen these days. What started as just a cute home video is now becoming an inspiration to families across the nation.
Caleb and Amanda Gray sang "You Are My Sunshine" to their 25-month-old son, Bo, before and after his heart surgery. Since then, the Gray family says it's his favorite song. Bo was born with down syndrome and several heart conditions.
After surgery in 2016, the hospital let his parents sing to him in the cardiac intensive care unit. Amanda Bowman Gray, Bo's Mother, says,"When we played that song that's when his arm, you'll watch his arms come up, his legs start to move, he starts to shift, The first time we really saw him respond to us was through our voices and the music."
Doctors were shocked to see him react to the music. They told his parents they didn't expect him to start speaking until age three. The Gray family lives in Utah now, but Bo's father, Caleb was born in Tallahassee and has been a musician all his life.
The Gray's say the entire family is musically inclined, but "You Are My Sunshine" is having a profound effect on all of them... and now, on the country. Just days after Amanda posted the video to her Facebook page, 52 million viewed it and over a million shared the post.
Bo's parents say through patience and music therapy, he now knows 12 words, defying the odds and speaking before anyone expected. Caleb Gray, Bo's Father, tells us, "It's definitely made me a better person. You kind of step back and go okay, you know, it's not all about me, it's not all about images. It kind of makes you focus on what really matters in the world."
A message that's spreading beyond the Gray family. People are commenting on the video saying things like "So cute, I cried tears of happiness" and "As a parent with a down syndrome child, A love it". The power of music therapy is proving to help Bo and others overcome life's toughest challenges.
