One of the series on Netflix right now, which I highly recommend, is All the Light we Cannot See. It is about a blind woman during the time of the German occupation of France. It reminded me of a woman that I knew growing up.
Our neighbor Debbie was blind and lived by herself with a seeing eye dog. I was so fascinated watching her move about her home. Nothing was decorated, and she had everything spaced out so she could find it by memory. She cooked by feel. She’d dip the measuring cup then feel the top. Her use of the stove and knives scared me, but she didn’t hurt herself.
Just like the character in the movie, Debbie counted steps to go places. She did not have a physical map which could’ve been so helpful for her. Her seeing eye dog helped her navigate crossing of the streets, provided companionship and some protection. There was a bus system in our town that she used for transportation since she couldn’t drive. She had a job where she worked on the telephone, but she still had to go to an office for work.
There are things that could have made her life a lot easier. For example, she had to use cash back then and all of our bills are the same size and shape with no physical differentiation. Money in other countries has bumps on it to help sight-impaired people know what they’re holding. She used a folding technique for the different bills in her wallet to differentiate denominations. It required her to ask the shopkeepers what denomination each bill was individually and she would fold them, and put them away. I wonder how she navigates all of the smooth, plastic cards that are required for today’s economy.
Debbie loved to read, and had piles and piles of braille books. Braille books are harder to get ahold of than print books because not every book is made in braille. They are also more expensive and take it more pages because the braille writing is larger than print and it’s only on one side of the paper. Now, we have many audiobooks available, but that wasn’t always the case back then for new books. My mom would sometimes read books on cassette tape for her to listen to. Debbie enjoyed watching television and would watch shows that were very verbal, MASH was her favorite.
I remember being at her house in the winter in the late afternoon. As it got darker and darker, I suddenly realized that she didn’t have any lamps, so when the apartment got too dark for me, I left. She just happily stayed in her dark room, because for her it was the same.
