The following is dedicated to my Grandpa Deters who taught me love, respect, patience and how to give the best hugs.
Let’s imagine that you are a four year-old boy from the midwest. You are tall for your age, uncoordinated, knobby-kneed and silly. You’re creative, playful and full of energy. Your favorite past-times are reading stories with your mom, climbing trees, riding your bike and playing with your He-Man action figures. “I have the power!”
Like most kids who grew up in the 80s, my public exposure to blindness came from Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Tom Sullivan. It was pretty cool to know that blind people were able to perform on stage and act in movies and TV. But as cool as that is, you still don’t really gain a first hand understanding of blindness when watching a blind person on TV.
And of course, I had 20/20 vision.
That’s right. the young boy with the unkempt auburn hair, whose mother made him wear 80s style collared shirts with the thick black, red and white stripes had 20/20 vision. That boy was me. And for the first 13 years of my life, I was not legally blind.
But my Grandpa was.
Born in 1937, Carl J. Deters wasn’t blind his entire life either. He was big into Old Time Radio, the Serial adventures and Singing Cowboy movies of the 1940s and their collectibles. He was also an early fanboy of Star Wars and Star Trek! And oh how he loved model trains!
I didn’t realize it then but my Grandpa would not only help to mold the man that I am, he would be an inspiration for the blind person I would come to be.
When I was very little, he could see some light and shadows which is similar to the vision that I have now. But that didn’t stop him. If there was a problem with the VCR like the heads were dirty or a tape was jammed, he would take the whole thing apart and fix it. Then, he would clean it and put it back together again. Probably better than it was to start with.
He would do the same thing with his John Deere riding mower. Not only would he cut the grass by following the lines of the shadows on the ground but then he would clean the grass from the mowers blades. And there were so many times I saw him taking things apart under the hood to fix a problem.
My Grandpa didn’t let his blindness prevent him from living his life how he wanted to. Yes, like many of us, he did get impatient, frustrated and even angry. That didn’t stop him either. Despite being nervous in large crowds, if he wanted to go out somewhere – he would do it. He didn’t use a cane but rather relied on using the sighted guide method with whoever he was with. And he wasn’t afraid to tell someone that he was legally blind.
In the 70s, when he still had some vision, he went for a job interview. He disclosed to the interviewer that he had issues with his vision. The interviewer proceeded to ask my Grandpa to tell him the color of his tie.
It was because of stories like that, in addition to seeing what my Grandpa could do, that prepared me for my journey with blindness. I learned that just because I couldn’t see, i am still able to learn and accomplish most anything I set my mind to. And when blindness throws an obstacle my way, break it down, figure out the problem, fix it, clean it up and move forward better than ever before. Just like that VCR.
My Grandpa also taught me that no matter how frustrated or angry I might get, I just need to take a deep breath and be patient. I might run into walls and stub my toes on the furniture. I might even meet people who are ignorant about blindness. And for the record, I have definatly been hit with my share of bruises and ignorance!
So yeah, there was Tom, Ray and Stevie but it’s not the same. For the first 13 years of my life, this was my experience with blindness. Without fully realizing it, my Grandpa was preparing me for the journey to come.
And boy, what a journey it has been.
