| February 6, 2017 -- I have a long-time friend who died last December after a relatively short illness. She was born totally blind, but throughout her life learned many ways to cope with and overcome her disability. In fact, she went to work for the State of Connecticut as a teacher of the blind, teaching other blind people how to cook, how to sew, how to handle money, how to shop, and how to do housekeeping. She even, as a challenge, learned how to drive, with someone else providing the seeing part of the challenge. Of course she would never be allowed to have a license, but she liked to push the limits of what she could do.
Alice loved to sing, and had a very good soprano voice. She was a member of our church choir for as long as I can remember. Being blind while being a member of a choir presented difficulties, but Alice overcame them. Staying acutely aware of the voices around her allowed her to “see” the choir director she could not see with her eyes. She printed out the music in Braille, using a device which included an optical scanner.
Alice had a strong desire to serve others in whatever way she could. She discovered that she had a gift for what some might call “faith healing”. By meeting with and praying with those who had mental or physical illnesses she was able to help them along a path to recovery. Far be it from me to question why or how that works, but it really seemed to help. Just being around her seemed to be good for people. She was a dedicated and core member of our Church’s prayer team.
In all these ways Alice was giving back to all those who had helped her over the years. And I am sure that now in Heaven she will have her sight at last, for Jesus tells us “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” |
