Things I never told you- part one

Did I ever tell you I was blind when I was three? It is true and it goes like this.

I don't remember being blind. It just seemed to me to be the world was supposed to be that way and I had no idea that anyone else was any different than I was. I do however, remember coming home from the hospital afterwards. It was like a window was opened on the world. I walked through the same streets that I had walked with my parents before, I strolled through the same mall I had gone to a hundred times in the past, but this time I was awestruck. I remember pointing out lights and pictures and shiny things amazed that I had never seen them before. I remember that at first the ground seemed to be coming up to meet me. I remember having troubles judging at first how far away the ground was and thinking my foot was about to hit the ground and then my foot slamming down as the ground was further than I thought. I remember wonder, amazement, excitment, thrill, and joy.

I don't however remember being blind. I don't remember the day at supper that my mother realized I couldn't see. You see, I was three. I didn't act blind. I may have seemed a little clumsy but I had adjusted to the world as I knew it and they didn't know. So, one day at dinner, my mother sits watching me eat. Quietly, she looks at my father and says, "Honey, she can't see." Dad looks back at her incredulously and says, "Well, of course she can." Mom looks back at him and repeats, "No, she can't just watch her." And so they did. As they watched, I reached for my glass and missed. I reached again, and again until I located it. When I had located it, I drank my drink and then placed it down where I knew it was. The same thing happened when I tried to eat. I picked up my fork and stabbed at the table until I found my plate. Once I had found my plate, I ate my dinner. Watching me and suddenly realizing what I was doing, made them realize that I actually couldn't see and then they scheduled an appointment.

Through the years, my eyesight has deteriorated, and I have been told there is a possibility that one day, I could again lose my eyesight, but this time permanently. I remember walking around my house as a child with a blindfold over my eyes to test to see what the world would be like if that should happen.

But in the meantime, I have been blessed with 30 years and counting of eyesight. I have seem my husband, I have seen my inlaws and my nephew and most important of all . . . I have seen the beautiful big brown eyes of my Little Princess, I have seen her crooked smile and her curly fuzzy hair. And because of that there is nothing that can happen in the future that could ever make me sad about losing my eyesight.

I don't look at it as losing something, I look at is as a gift the doctors gave me 30 years ago that I will treasure as long as I have it.