My eyesight started to deteriorate around the age of 7, and went completely away roughly 5 years later. I was always a rather visual person, but still kept my

My eyesight started to deteriorate around the age of 7, and went completely away roughly 5 years later. I was always a rather visual person, but still kept my ability to visualize complex scenery roughly only for about 5 years. At the age of 20, every face I might have remembered was totally gone, nor was I able to crisply imagine things I used to know how they looked. I don't really want to muddy your memory of your father, but I highly doubt he really saw the vision he described in the detail that you imagine. More likely is that he found a way to translate his inner state in such a way that a sighted person like you could understand it. There are always exceptions of course, and I dont know what "lifelong blind" really mean. But if it means what I think, I doubt that the ability to visualize complex scenery suddenly reformed itself just for that occasion.