THE TOP TEN QUESTIONS I’VE BEEN ASKED ABOUT BLINDNESS.

- “Do you dream visually or at all”?

Yes/no. I do dream and like you remember some of them. Just as in my waking life I don’t see people so it’s the same in my dreams. I lost my sight too early to have built up visual imagery which means it cannot appear in my dreams in the same way as alcohol doesn’t appear in a driver’s blood if he’s not been drinking and driving. If he’d never drank and the police described the consistency of different types of drinks he’d still not test positive for it in his blood.



- “What if I fill in the gaps surely then you will imagine things visually”?

Sorry no! People have gone to great lengths to describe my surroundings but it doesn’t work. If you said:

“I had a lump as big as a tennis ball on my hand”,

I’ve handled a tennis ball so would know that it’d be a fair sized lump but if you said:

“A lorry as big as an elephant went by”,

I doubt I’d believe you because factually I don’t think they can be that big but cannot imagine an elephant anyway.




- “Do you cook and if so do you scald yourself”?

I do all my own cooking, do not often scald myself and cannot remember the last time I either burned or scalded myself. I know when meat is done because the fork comes out clean and doesn’t stick on the way out and besides I have a rough idea now as to how long each item should be left in for.



- “How do you choose clothes and can you match colours”?

For me a nightmare and of necessity I dress to someone else’s taste I suppose in that I have to be fully reliant on someone to know what suits me and not make me look ridiculous. Matching is made easier if people choose things which go with the greatest number of things already present in the wardrobe. There are gadgets available to assist but to be honest I just can’t remember what colours go with what as they are only words to me. I know that black goes with most things though but things are further complicated by people describing the same things in different ways – Baige or off white for instance.



- “Do you read Braille”?

Yes but only a small proportion of blind people do as most people are blinded late in life by age onset diseases.



- “Do you think it is worse to lose your hearing or sight”?

A ridiculous, crass, deeply offensive, thoughtless and insensitive question which I only intend answering once more and that’s just so I can bury this chestnut once and for all. Loss is loss so obviously it’s better to be neither. I’m not deaf so don’t know how to compare one situation I am in with one I’ve never been in and shouldn’t insult deaf people by trying. You, if you’re neither have the luxury of debate for which you should be thankful. If someone decides it’s better to be one or the other and tells me so I put them down as a ninny and hope I can get away from them as soon as possible. I assume someone with Parkinsonism isn’t asked whether they’d rather have MS so why pick on us for this damn fool question? It’s worse to be both so please spare your thoughts for those who are deaf and blind as they must surely be some of the loneliest people on this planet. Hardly anyone knows how to communicate with them andI can’t imagine anything worse than losing my hearing as well as my sight not instead of. The same goes for my ability to walk and think properly though as I can’t drive and need my wits about me in order to know what I’m doing.



- “Do you miss what you’ve not had”?

Maybe not experientially but of course, being intelligent enough to know what I could do if I were sighted and knowing what I’d have liked to have done had I been then the answer has to be yes. To have to have a life-long need for assistance which is either of poor quality or just isn’t there at all is wearing and frustrating but when it is of good quality such as that provided by the Guide Dogs Association then the problems are greatly eased and if friends and family are supportive it’s a lot better. Unfortunately my family support ended with the death of my grandmother so the difficulties imposed by blindness have been maximised. Remember that you were born with nothing as was I and would never have wanted your mobile phone, car, spouse and children if you didn’t see the benefits they bring to others and thought them worth having despite their drawbacks.



- “What joy can you find in living in your state”?

Plenty but I’ve had to look for it where it matters and not keep endlessly longing for that which I can’t have. Give me music, a good book, access to this computer where I can talk to people, some good friends and a guide dog and I’m well away. For those of us who have experienced great heartache – Both sighted and blind – We surely know where joy can be found and beyond a certain level necessary for comfort it is not to be found in the acquisition of more and more material possessions.



- “What would you like to see if you regained your sight tomorrow”?

Possibly the easiest question of all for me to answer. Obviously I’d lose my dog then so I’d have to say the smile on the nearest child’s face. I love children more than words can say and in the main they love me. Right from my days in the blind school I attended where there were smaller blind children to love, and I did, right up till my days of living alone on a rough council estate where all the children of the neighbourhood knew they could come in and play with my dog and listen to my stories I have never had a problem with them and they have never stolen from me whereas adults have. I once went to my local school to help with the children’s reading with the aid of Braille books with print in them also and one said to me:

“We’ll never forget you. You’re looking very beautiful today”.

Special needs children who won’t go to anyone but their parents have readily sat on my lap and rough uncared for children have loved my children’s stories. I’m a true Canncerian – Home loving, child loving, animal loving and love being near the sea. I love life in general and yet at the same time readily admit to finding it crushingly difficult and heartbreakingly sad and desperately unfair, not just to me but to many others.



- “Does your guide dog do all the work and know everywhere you want to go”?

We work as a team with the dog as pilot and guide and I as the navigator. If I didn’t know where we were going the dog could and would get us lost as she may well try to do as Esme has done which is try and go to the vet’s when we’re on our way somewhere else which incorporates part of the route to the vet. She loves it in there because they give her liver treats and fuss her and she sees some of her “mates”. I suppose it’s like a social outing but suspect the grub is the main attraction! I was taught all my routes with a cane first and had to memorise them and then an instructor had to teach us both how to travel the same routes when the dog came home because you don’t do the same things with a dog as with a cane, like looking for lamp posts or crossing when you get to a box containing electricity cables or whatever as walls are no longer followed. Also it is not a dog’s responsibility to decide when to cross a road. It can cope with minor roads with little traffic but even then has to be told to go by its owner and on major roads sighted assistance is vital.


Want to know more? Post your questions in the comments section and I will answer them but remember keep ‘em clean! I don’t mind what you ask me because if you don’t ask you won’t know.