Patrick Islar dreams of becoming a dance teacher. He’s sitting on the steps outside his apartment at the St. Nicholas Public Houses in Central Harlem. The 20-year-old is wearing a Yankees blue baseball cap and orange American eagle collared shirt.
He tells me that he is looking forward to graduation next year, “First I’m going go to college, and then open my own dance school.”
Patrick’s father Ronald Islar is a retired police office, and now works on-and-off with the children of the St. Nicholas community. His mother, Maria Valle Islar, succumbed to cancer when he was in 6th grade . Her struggle was a long and drawn out 7-year battle. It began with the ash cloud that consumed the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001. As a first responder Maria Islar inhaled a myriad of toxins. She lost an eye and, after numerous complications, weighed only 93 pounds when she died.
“All five of her organs was affected by it – asbestos, glass, cement, brick, concrete – everything pulverized into fine dust,” says Ronald Islar. “So when you inhaled it, where’s it going to go, but just settle into your organs.”
Patrick finds September 11th particularly hard. After losing his mother , he placed a plastic jeweled crown on top of her giant gold and ivory urn.
Patrick’s challenges surfaced before 9-11. When Patrick was 15 days old he got a fever and was rushed back to the hospital. The doctors gave him penicillin, but he was allergic to it. The medicine It caused him to go into cardiac arrest and he subsequently developed Cerebral Palsy. He also suffers from a rare disease called Lennox Gastaut Syndrome, which can cause up to 200 brain seizures daily.
Patrick’s father says his son has the mentality of a 10-year old. Patrick is currently enrolled in his final year of school at the Westchester school for Special Children. Ronald Islar says his son is loving but just like any other normal teenager. “He’s a mild mannered, soft-spoken young man, ‘till he gets angry.”
Patrick says he doesn’t feel like he has a disability, especially when he dances. “Whenever I dance I feel like I’m boiling up, I let it out.” He is performing at his school’s Christmas talent show.
His father says he hopes one day Patrick will be able to live and support himself, although he has to be realistic about his condition. “He loves to dance, you ever put some music on in a room when he’s by himself and you peek in, you’ll see him doing his thing.”
Patrick loves Beyonce, bowling and surprisingly – pencils. Yes, pencils. He says, “I have a pencil fetish. If I see a pencil on the floor and if nobody claim it, it’s my pencil.”
Ronald Islar says, that like all parents bringing up a teenager, it can be tiring, but says with Patrick it’s worth it. “I’m his hero, but he got it wrong, he’s my hero.”
Patrick admits at times he can be difficult. He says he’s not a morning person and that’s when he knows he struggles with the most. He says his father is strict, but has knows he has his best interests at heart. “He gets on my case 24/7 and that what I love about him.”
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Sasha Maria Schwendenwein 
Posted on December 20, 2011
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