Bristol Rovers legend Ian Holloway has shared an incredibly moving story relating to raising his three deaf daughters.
The former midfielder, who also managed a number of premier league clubs, was talking on a podcast, Football Ramble, about a trip away with his family to the Maldives.
He told listeners: "It's quite incredible, honestly, we took them on holiday once, a beautiful holiday. We were in the Maldives and the sun was setting, we were walking back to our lovely little shack and my youngest I had her on my shoulder, Chloe who was two years older than her, she was walking by me and I looked at my wife and you could hear the sea just coming in, waves coming on the shore, just lapping the shore.
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"And I had a little tear in my eye and Chloe went 'What's wrong?", and I went 'oh you can't hear the beautiful sound of the water coming and licking the shore'. And she went 'yeah but can you see the diamonds dancing on the water?'.
"And I looked out and do you know what it was exactly what she said, I hadn't seen that. I was enjoying the other side of the sound but oh my god when I looked it was quite incredible.
"She said: 'Don't worry about me, I see lots more things than you do. I'm not missing anything'. You know, just wow."
Throughout his life, the working-class boy from a Bristol council estate has shared a number of experiences about raising deaf children. He revealed that his family were signing to his youngest daughter from the moment she was born.
Ian spent most of his career at boyhood club Bristol Rovers where he had three spells which included the start and finish of his playing career. He was part of the Wimbledon team that won promotion to the top flight in 1986, a place they would remain for the next fourteen seasons.
He has also managed Queens Park Rangers, where he won promotion from Division Two in 2003–04, Plymouth Argyle, Leicester City, Blackpool, Crystal Palace and Millwall.
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