PARTING WAS SUCH SAD SORROW.

Although there were thirty odd years’ difference in our ages K T and I got on like a house on fire. A young blind woman whom I met after my dog took me up to her, K T I soon found out lived not that far from me. She was amazed that I liked “Coldplay” after all I am now to her at least, in my senior years! She’s too nice to describe me as being in my dotage but fifty odd and twenty something are worlds apart or should be shouldn’t they?

We started meeting up because each needed the other’s skills apart from anything else. She taught me something about computers and how the information you’re looking for is to be found at the bottom of the page after all the other old rubbish you have to wade through first and I in my turn taught her how to cook pasta and work her oven and washing machine. When we weren’t playing “teacher” this is what we got up to:

She’d invite a load of her young blind mates round and I’d get an invite too. These are all fairly savvy street wise kids with a good deal of computer knowledge and a penchant for deafeningly loud music! We’d sit around eating pizza (please don’t tell my doctor as it’s forbidden food) and then one day I lost my head. “I can see clearly now” by Johnny Nash started blasting out of K T’s stereo system. I grabbed her by one hand and a boy young enough to be my son by the other and we did our version of dancing. I nearly did my back in but nothing got broken. Then when the song finished K T said

“Shall we do it again – Outside”! We did and sang the words at the top of our voices. I’d never laughed so much in all my life! It was fabulous and took me back to my youth at college where I was often to be seen “sighted drunk” (well I could hardly get blind drunk now could I so I adapted the saying) or drinking coffee into the night with my pals many of whom have died because of illnesses and tumours which originally caused them to be blind.

We also, K T and I, have a strange sleep pattern resulting from not seeing light. The hormone melatonin which is released in the sighted in response to darkness is released at random times in blind people, making it impossible to sleep through the night all year round every night. This is regardless of whether you work or have loads to do in the day and more can be found out about it on the web but I’m not sure if it’s appropriate to advertise other people’s sites. Often K T and I “did an all nighter” when neither of us could sleep.

Well all good things come to an end a whole lot quicker than the bad ones, have you noticed that? K T rang me up one day to tell me she was moving away and would live some distance from me – Not far for sighted people but a long way if you have mobility problems.

We had a final evening together when she made me tea and cooked something in her oven and it was with a sense of pride that I remembered that I’d taught her how to use it and a sense of achievement on her part for conquering her fear of it.

I miss her terribly and was on the verge of tears as I gave her a hug and a quick kiss “goodbye”. She tells me she’s really happy where she is and I’m delighted for her. Between the blind people you have other things in common with there’s a real deep and lasting bond but this doesn’t apply to all of us or exist between all of us. Believe it or not some blind people don’t like me! Do I like all of them? Of course I do ‘’’’’not! We differ in every respect as you do from others in our group and we are similar too. However I can truly say that parting from K T was such sad sorrow