The Way I See It

The way I see it, having a disability does not necessarily prevent someone from excelling.
Case in point:
I attended the funeral service of the late centenarian, Miss Eileen Smithen, on Thursday 30th May.
I would have known the dynamic lady from childhood and in recent conversations with her, I discovered that she knew me too.
Knew me too well.
She knew that I was one of the sons of Luther and Mildred Morton and that I was accustomed to be on the TV and the radio and hear this one—and that they call me SANDOPEY!
Well I newa!
Hers is an amazing story though.
She became blind at age twenty but that did not prevent her from living a full life.
She was the Mid Wife for a lot of the neighbourhood children and boasted that not one parent ever had to complain about their care or welfare, when they returned for them, at the end of the day.
Donald Kelly gave testimony that when his mom was about to give birth to him, the Mid Wife was late, but BLIND EILEEN was present and duly completed the delivery of the baby!
Ionie Swanston, her God child, testified to attempting to pass her quietly one day, without her knowing, as she was supposed to be blind and as she walked softly by, Eileen called out her name!
Hon. Vance Amory noted that when persons lose certain faculties, others develop and help them to be alert in dealing with life’s challenges.
After she became blind, she planted cotton and even had a vegetable garden.
She was very independent and cooked and washed and all of those good things, even though in her latter years, she was ably assisted by Pastor Kelly and his family and other community minded individuals.
She was an encourager and many persons testified that she constantly admonished them to stay on the straight and narrow way.
Fast forward To Wrenford Dore.
He too is visually impaired, but put him in a studio, in front of the sound board and there is no one on the face of the earth can manage that thing better than he can.
He also has an excellent memory, spitting out phone numbers of individuals and businesses, as if he is reading.
So, it tells me therefore that you don’t have to let disabilities keep you down.
There was also a blind man from Cotton Ground (I don’t remember his name), but I am told that there was no sighted person who could husk out coconuts faster than he could.
Have you heard about the Trinidadian girl who was born without hands, who passed a whole lot of CXC subjects, writing with her toes?
Check this update on her from the Trinidad Guardian:
“So much has been writ¬ten about young Phenom Veera Bha¬jan since she burst on¬to the na¬tion¬al stage and in¬to the na¬tion¬al con¬scious¬ness back in 1999. That’s the year she wrote and aced the then Com¬mon En¬trance ex¬am, pass¬ing for her first choice St Au¬gus-tine Girls’ High School (SAGHS), and plac¬ing in the top 100 stu¬dents in T&T. Au¬gust born, she gift¬ed her par¬ents a tiny arm¬less bun¬dle 23 years ago, kick¬ing and scream¬ing ready to take on the chal¬lenges of the world. And that is ex¬act¬ly what this dy¬namo from cen-tral Trinidad has done in tran¬scend¬ing these chal-lenges that less¬er mor¬tals may not have had the men-tal and phys¬i¬cal strengths to con¬quer.
Of¬ten de¬scribed as in¬spi¬ra¬tional and ex¬cep¬tion¬al, the pe¬tite Bha¬jan was ad¬mit¬ted to the bar to prac¬tise as an at¬tor¬ney, in Oc¬to¬ber, and is now fo¬cused on build-ing a suc¬cess¬ful career. Possessing great courage and de¬ter¬mi¬na¬tion to over¬come the odds of be¬ing born arm¬less, she has had to en¬dure much ad¬ver¬si¬ty. “I have so much to be thank¬ful for, es¬pe¬cial¬ly God and my parents. “I’ve had nu¬mer¬ous chal¬lenges and ob-sta¬cles, but with the sup¬port and love of my par¬ents, and self-be¬lief and con¬fi¬dence, I have so far been able to over¬come all of them.”
From an ear¬ly age, her par¬ents had en¬cour¬aged her to use her feet to get ahead. “There was no spe¬cial train¬ing in¬volved, us¬ing my feet as my hands just came nat¬u¬ral¬ly. I would pick up pen¬cils and oth¬er things as a lit¬tle girl. Most things that oth¬ers can do with their hands, I can do with my feet.” Bha¬jan is able to write us¬ing her left foot and she’s com¬fort¬able nav¬i-gat¬ing her lap¬top with her toes.”
Her exploits caused famous Trinidadian calypsonian CRO-CRO to pen a song in which he said that if his son, who had two good hands could not do well in school, he would ‘chop off he hand.’
So disabilities should not keep us down.
Always remember the words from the good old hymn:
“When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well, with my soul.”
That’s the way I see it. How do you see it?