Wednesday, 16 October 2013
Monet refuses the Operation
I caught a radio programme about going blind the other day and it made me think really hard about what losing my sight would be like. I used to visit an elderly lady who was blind for Age Concern as a volunteer. She had studied at the Royal College of Music and had a promising career but the war intervened and her ability to hear changes in tone and pitch led to her working at Bletchley Park trying to decipher messages from the Germans. She was in her 90's when I knew her and arthritis had taken away her chance to play her beloved piano any more. She loved the radio, it was a lifeline and especially loved hearing books or poetry read aloud. In my online wanderings looking for more knowledge about blindness I found this wonderful poem about Monet. Just wanted to share.
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4 comments:
Having had that blip with my sight a couple of years back I understand just how terrifying losing one's sight would be but if we had to choose between that and other disabilities who knows which we'd choose. I visit as a volunteer ffor Somerset Sight and on our induction session we tried out various glasses which helped us to see as we might if we had various different types of blindness - horrible!
As a visual artist I sometimes think it is the thing I fear most, but I'm always astounded at the human spirit and how we adapt to circumstances.
What a moving work Lesley, losing ones sight would surely be devastating and frightening. However my mother lost most of her hearing and said how isolating it was, to be in a group of people and not be able to share conversation or communicate easily. However we associated blindness with a loss of independence and that is most frightening of all.
My elderly godfather had very little sight and I used to walk him round his garden describing the plants when I was a child. He died when I was still young and I realise now how little I know about him, but remember those times with affection.What an interesting life your friend had led.Thank you for sharing the moving words.
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