I was born in a small town near Lynchburg, Virginia where I lived until my family and I moved to the rural community of Possum Hollow, population 24. From the very beginning, my parents knew I was different from other children. shortly after I was born, they were told that I was blind and would never be able to see with my eyes. Stunned and saddened by this news, my parents realized that they would have to learn how to help me figure out ways of doing the same things other children did so easily. Neither of my parents had gone past the 8th grade in school because they had to drop out to help care for other family members during the Great Depression. Yet, they knew they had to help me learn to ‘see’ with my other senses. Only then, could I begin to live anything like a normal life. They never read one book about blindness. It was their common sense approach to teaching me that carried the day.
Many of the episodes in this podcast are stories about the things they helped me learn when I was very young. Such things as using echo location to get around, How to safely cross a road, ways to learn and perfect my balance, and other wonderful things have all helped me live a life I would had never lived had I been sighted. I have been to many places, met many people, and done many things I would not have done if I had possessed normal vision. In fact, I may still be living in rural Virginia were I sighted.
Shortly before my 5th birthday, they took me to the School for the Blind in Staunton, Virginia where I would spend much of my young life with others who were blind. At that time, there was no way my local public school had what was needed to help me with my education. As it turned out, others who came to the school had discovered the same thing. Even people who had what we now know as low vision were unable to go to their local school which, like mine, didn’t have large print text books and certainly no books in braille. So, while the school in Staunton was known as the School for the Blind, there were students there who could see quite well. They just couldn’t read the small print in their text books or see what was written on the blackboard. I basically grew up in both worlds. On the one hand, I was around others who were totally blind, while at the same time I I interacted with students who could see almost as well as my pre-school playmates. I learned strategies from both about how to do a lot of things I never thought I would be able to do.
As I look back on this time in my life, I realized that what I learned academically was only a small part of my education. It was here that I met teachers and other adults who, like Mama and Daddy, knew how to help me gain the freedom to do many things I had thought were not possible. They also taught me things about life that gave me the ability to see myself as a smart, sensitive, self-aware person without being overly self-important. Many of the stories of my life come from this time when some of my most remembered life mentors gave me so much more than history, math, geography, grammar, and other academic skills. They helped me look deeply inside myself at the things that ultimately became some of the cornerstones of who I really am. They didn’t preach these things. They simply allowed me to live among them and learn so much from them about how they lived their own lives.
They encouraged me to continue my education and go to college which I did the year after I graduated from the School for the Blind.
College was different in that I was the only blind student on campus. It was also different because I realized how academically poor my high school education really was. I wasn’t sure I would make it. Fortunately, hard work and, once again wonderful mentors, were there to help me on my way. I graduated with honors.
Not to worry. I’m not writing an autobiography of my life. We will stop here and allow listeners to learn more about my life by listening to the stories in the podcast. There is a resume of my later years you can read if you wish to do so. For now, my stories in the podcast will hopefully fill you in on who I really am.
I will always have my contact information at the end of each episode. Please get in touch. Tell me your own story or comment on mine. Any comments you have will be welcomed.