'He is my idol': Haitian boy inspired by Calgary drummer with no arms

Alvin Law and Luc Huxter are the unlikeliest of friends.

Law is a 50-something husband and fatherliving in Calgary.

Huxter is an 11-year-old orphan from Haiti.

Their friendship has been forged on a love of music and an unrelenting will to exceed whatever expectations society puton them.

Law was born without arms in 1960 in Yorkton,Saskatchewan, after his birth mother took the morning sickness drug thalidomide during pregnancy.

He was raised by no-nonsense foster parents."Mom was not an average mom," Law says. "She wasone of those people that didn't care if I had no arms and pushed to where she would teach me thingslike sewing."

I used to bang on pots and pans with wooden spoons.- Alvin Law

She didn't have to teach young Alvin about rhythm; it came naturally.

"Apparently, when I was three years oldI used to bang on pots and pans with wooden spoons on Saturday morning to the test pattern on CBC Television."

As withevery other task, Law used his feet to bang the cookware.

When his parents bought him a used drum kit at an auction at the local Royal Canadian Legion, it would set him on a path that would change his life.

'He'll never see...walk...talk'

Decades later and thousands of kilometres away, a young mother in Haiti was in early labour and unbearable grief after watching herhusband and children swept to their deaths in raging floodwater.

Not long after giving birth to a three-pound baby boy nearly three months before his due date, she fled the hospital.

That's when Karen Huxter's phone rang.

She is a Newfoundlander who founded and runs the orphanageHands Across the Seain Haiti.

The orphanage was in the middle of construction and Huxter was in no position to take in a prematurenewborn.

"They said, 'If you don't take him, he'll be dead in two days.' I saidI'll come and look."

She not only took the baby in, shedecided to adopt him.

Luc had no ability to suck and had to be fed with a syringe.By the time Luc was fivemonths old, Huxter realized there was something seriously wrong.He appeared to be blind anddeaf and wasn't hitting any of the milestones expected of an infant.Huxter took Luc to a pediatrician in Haiti, who diagnosed Luc with cerebral palsy. His words outrage her to this day.

"He said, 'Madam, if he is not seeing now, he'll never see, never walk, never talk.'" She repeats the man's devastating words: "Just throw him away, and if you want to helpsomeone in my country, Madam, you'll find one that matters."

Just throw him away. Find one that matters.- Haitianpediatrician

After a good cry in the car, Huxtervowed to raise her adopted son without limits.

And he exceeded all expectations; he is neither deaf nor blind and he can walk, recently mastering stairs.

Just like Alvin Law, Luc Huxter always seemed to be keeping beat with his feet.

As Luc grew up in Haiti, Law had already become an accomplished drummer andmotivational speaker in Calgary. Videos of him playing the drums with his feet are popular on YouTube,where British broadcasterChannel 4found him and asked him to be in a spectacularadvertisement for the 2016 Paralympic Games.

Last year, on a visit to Huxter's home province of Newfoundland, Luc spotted that ad with Law playing the drums. "He was watching the Paralympicswell, he was so excited," Huxter recalls."Then he focuses on Alvin. 'Mom, he's doing it with his feet! Mom,I can do that, too!'"

Like Law, Luc was known for tapping out a rhythm everywhere he went, from home to church. So his mom emailedLaw and arranged a meeting.

'He is my idol'

The Huxters and the Laws finally met earlier this month in Calgary.Alvin Law gifted Luc Huxter with aset of drum sticks and a drum pad.

Each took a drum stick between his toes for an impromptujam on the drum pad, making a joint rhythm with their free feet banging the hardwood floor.

Drumming feet

7 years ago

Duration 0:37

Law remembered hisyouth and a mother who refused tolet him be disadvantaged by his disability."They believed I would find everything in my life if I went forit," Law says.Seeing Luc was like a "flashback into a time when I didn't know I could [do this], and here I have."

Hisnew 11-year-old pal is still working hard on controlling a body that doesn't always co-operate.

Buthis mind is quick, and perhaps because of the many challenges he hasalready faced, he is able to distill theirfriendship into a few words.

"It is precious and special," the boy says with a grin that is rivalled only whenhe's engaged in two activities: drumming or thinking about the day he will drive a car with his feet, like his friend Alvin. "He is my idol."