The year was 1989. The baby she would give birth to the following June would be named John, like his father.

At seven weeks, the tiny embryo was undergoing a dramatic transformation. Brain, limbs, lungs and all essential organs were rapidly taking shape. The heartbeat had found its regular rhythm.

Eyes had just begun to form.

Timing was everything, Castillo would discover the day her son came into the world.

``I remember looking at him and thinking that his eyes were puffy,'' she told a Miami jury in a landmark 1996 civil action against chemical giant DuPont, maker of Benlate.

Then the doctor told Castillo her baby didn't seem to have any eyes. Further examination showed John's eye sockets contained fluid-filled cysts.

Three years later, Castillo got a call from a British reporter who was researching a possible link between benomyl, the active ingredient in Benlate, and clusters of newborns with eye abnormalities in the United Kingdom.

``He wanted to know if I lived on or near a farm,'' she said.

That was when Castillo, a homemaker and wife of an accountant, remembered the strawberry field and the farm tractor spewing a thick white mist that sprayed her with Benlate, the most widely used fungicide in the world.

Castillo's attorney, James Ferraro, presented the jury with animal studies showing a link between Benlate's active ingredient and eye malformations in the offspring of pregnant rats exposed to the chemical.

The jury awarded John Castillo Jr. $4 million.

DuPont steadfastly denied its fungicide posed a risk to human health and appealed the verdict. It was was upheld in July by the Florida Supreme Court.

Nearly a decade after the Castillos won their case, DuPont paid the family.

``With the interest and everything it was almost double - $6.9 million,'' Ferraro said.

The Castillo family moved eight years ago to the Boston area, where John attends Helen Keller's alma mater, the Perkins School for the Blind.

``Her pictures are all over the place. It's very inspiring,'' Donna Castillo said.

John, who will turn 15 next month, struggles with learning disabilities and other problems his mother believes are the result of the chemical insult to his developing brain.

He struggles academically, she said. But he has found his place in the school's music program.

John plays the drums and the piano and is starting on the violin, Castillo said. He also performs as a hand bell ringer and - for the past two years - has opened Boston's baseball season by singing the national anthem at Red Sox games.

``He has a beautiful voice,'' she said.

John's 16-year-old sister, Adriana, shares her brother's musical inclinations.

``She's been his best friend,'' Castillo said. ``They have a lot in common.''

As for the future: ``I don't know how much he'll progress. I don't think he'll just be an adult without sight. He'll always need support.''

Maybe he can do something with music, she added. ``That's his big gift.''

Reporter Jan Hollingsworth can be reached at (813) 865-4436.