Impact of losing vision

Of course humour was a way of dealing with my problem. Madeline is a Golden Retriever and we joked that we would put a harness on her and go out together on the bus. She would love sitting under the table at cafes and restaurants. When we move I would have a white cane to take on walks and the tapping of the cane would keep the snakes away as I wouldn’t be able to see them.

A couple of days after I lost the vision in my second eye, we had a school arts performance to go to. Peter was away and the girls said it was ok not to go but I decided to make an effort and get there. We caught a taxi and went to the Chinese Restaurant near the theatre for dinner where the girls read the menu to me and ordered our meal and we had a chat about what was happening. They didn’t realise how serious this was going to be until I knocked over my glass of water on the table. The lighting in the restaurant was fairly dim and I didn’t see it. They helped me pay the bill and escorted me to the theatre. Once inside we sat with some of our neighbours who obviously missed their calling as comedians and threatened to move tables while I was in the toilet. Someone needed to come with me to the toilet, as I could not see which door was the ladies’ and which was the gents. During the next few months I walked into the gents a few times.

Cooking had also become a problem. I am not a very good cook and reading recipe books was no longer an option. Peter had always cooked for us as he was good at it and loved creating great meals but he was away a couple of nights a week. As I was unable to drive to pick up takeaway and had enough of the home delivery options we had to find a way to allow me to create something interesting for us to eat. The girls started reading recipes to me. This worked if someone was home when it was time to start preparing dinner. We found a way around this by having the recipe written out for me in very large print. The girls and Peter also wrote out phone numbers or account numbers and the credit card number, so that I could pay bills and order things over the phone. I was able to order some flowers for a sick aunt in Perth using this technique and was very proud of myself for being a little independent. My family were very discreet when dishes weren’t quite clean and put them back to be done again. They would alert me to the socks left fluttering on the line after the washing had been brought in.

One day when I went outside to hang out the washing I misjudged the step outside the laundry door. I fell down and luckily just missed knocking my head on the concrete step. I was lying there in my pyjamas, prone across the ground and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry so did both. I was home alone and lay there for a while before trying to get up and assess the damage. Within seconds of my phone call, my neighbour Annie was there and stayed with me for a couple of hours to make sure I was ok. This event was a bit of a shock as we all thought I had been doing ok.

This was a very difficult time for all of us. Peter had to do all the driving and he was back and forwards to Majors Creek to meet with the builder and council etc. He had to fit this in with work and all my doctor’s appointments. In normal times I would make those trips. He was extremely worried about what was going on with my eyes.

The girls were amazing in helping out and doing extra things that they didn’t plan on doing. During the school holidays we caught buses everywhere and they had to check timetables and make sure we were on the right buses. The day they came with me to Dr Kate’s surgery we spent most of the day catching buses to get there and back. They were great and didn’t complain too much.

I also had to give up my job. The day I went into the Museum to hand in my uniform and keys was a very emotional day and another change to add to all the changes I was making at the time.

One eye in working order

When I lost the vision in my left eye I was still able to go to work but it meant I had a long ride on the bus. My shift was four and a half hours but what was a twenty-minute drive in the car took an hour and a half on the bus and that was just one way. As I worked the afternoon shift this meant that during winter I was travelling home in the dark. Changing buses and walking home from the bus stop was a challenge. I had never been good in the dark but this was just plain scary. There were nights I arrived at the bus interchange to wait for my connecting bus and it was too hard. I found the taxi rank and caught a taxi home. Peter was able to pick me up most of the time and a few months into this saga I changed to a morning shift where Peter was able to drive me to work and I would arrive home mid-afternoon.

My job was as a tour guide at one of the major tourism institutions in Canberra and one of my duties was to meet and greet the visitors. When I was experiencing the double vision it was a bit scary as it was hard to tell how many people were coming through the door until they came closer. When a hundred schoolkids came in, it looked like two hundred! Making eye contact with my visitors was a bit difficult, as I couldn’t see them until they were very close to me. I became very good at recognising my colleague’s body shape or the way they walked, so that, much to their surprise, I could always greet them by name and when we had presentations at our team meetings I was reminded of my school days. To see what was going on, there I was sitting in the front row, right in front of the teacher – oops, presenter.

Some of the jobs at work were beyond me, working on the computer was not an option and as some of the areas in the museum were quite dark, these became no go zones for me as I struggled to see. My colleagues were very supportive but they also made sure I didn’t lose my sense of humour and we laughed a lot!

I was continually seeing the eye specialist who was assuring me all was going well and my eye was healing. The healing didn’t mean my sight was any better and I was still fairly incapacitated. As time went on the number of eyedrops I had to use increased. Trips to the eye specialist and all the eyedrops were costing us a fortune.

I continued to go to work and we caught buses everywhere and the girls and Peter had to put up with my mood swings, which he assured me were getting worse. They were getting worse for a reason and to top off not being able to see very well I was menopausal and had some problems that meant a trip to hospital to have a hysterectomy! Peter was worried about leaving me in hospital when I couldn’t see very well and was going to have a major operation. I was very lucky and had a great roommate who helped me out whenever I needed a spare pair of eyes. My recovery was interesting as I spent a number of weeks at home before I could go anywhere.

We also went on a holiday back to Perth to visit family and friends. Our last trip had been a few years before and we thought that with the move and Peter’s change of job coming up it would be a good idea to go then as we didn’t know when we would be in a position to go again. This was a very scary trip for me. Our family and friends were aware that I had a problem with my eyes but were not prepared for how bad it actually was. I was pretty good at bluffing and not letting on how bad it was but in some situations it was blindingly obvious! I wasn’t driving at all and as we were spending a lot of time in the south west of Western Australia Peter had a lot of driving to do. We ate out in cafes and restaurants and reading menus was a problem. Peter and the girls had to show me where the toilets were and often take me to the door, as I wasn’t able to read the signs. If we were out at night, Peter or the girls had to hold on to me and tell me where I was stepping and how many steps there were and more importantly where the puddles were! One night we were walking to the restaurant at our motel and Peter forgot to tell me about the puddle. Luckily the restaurant was quiet so I took off my shoes and socks and dried them by the fire while we ate.

Little did I know that a few months later life was to change again.

It's my Birthday!

One of the best things about living in Majors Creek is the friends I have made. This afternoon we had afternoon tea with friends and neighbours.

Peter cooked up a storm and we ate, drank champagne and laughed a lot.

I love the new friends I have made here and today showed I have chosen well. There was lots of conversation and laughter. 

The story continues next week!

Settling in

Living in a small village was very different to the suburbs of Canberra! The girls were able to ride their bikes and go for walks and we knew they would be fine. Locals look out for each other and even though we were the newbies I knew that if I got into trouble because of my lack of vision someone would be there for me and we were certainly available to our neighbours if they needed us.

On the day I saw my first snake while out walking with Madeline, I was quite shaken when I got to the pub. One of our neighbours ended up driving us home and told me they were worried about me walking around with my lack of vision. I assured her that I would always have Madeline or someone with me after that. Our grass got quite long at one stage and I was obsessive about keeping doors shut and wearing gumboots or shoes when we went outside. I didn’t know how Madeline would react if she saw a snake and one day when Peter was moving some building material he came across a blue-tongue lizard. He got a bit of a shock before he realised what it was! Madeline was very interested. Our neighbours told us that the fact she was still alive meant she hadn’t come across one yet!

We slowly started to make friends and when we walked down the main street in Braidwood we were able to say hello to people we knew and this was really important. I still remember how I felt the first time I said hello to someone I knew at the Hyperdome after we had moved to Canberra. It was when I felt I belonged. One of our neighbours told us how he loved going into town to get the paper as it took him an hour and a half!

Living in the country during a major drought was an interesting time as everyone was obsessed with water and the lack of rain. We knew the area was in drought but living in the city it didn’t really mean much. There were water restrictions and we couldn’t water our gardens or wash our cars but we really had no idea what that meant out here. People who live in small country towns rely on rain for all their water. We watched farmers droving their stock day in and day out to find feed for them, let alone water. We have a 100,000-litre tank and when it was first built we bought some water to get us going. We had no idea how much rain we got in the early months of living here but we knew we felt left out of conversations regarding the amount of rain that had fallen around the area. We finally purchased our rain gauge and checked it religiously after any rainfall. During our first June here, we had 300mls! It was amazing. As we still were surrounded by dirt it was pretty hairy for us. We did spend a lot of time outside in the middle of the night making sure the trenches around the verandah were working. When the tank overflowed we couldn’t believe it. We had so much rain the overflow ran down the back paddock and created a massive puddle. Maybe this was the place to build a dam.

Eventually we started to plant trees and gardens. I am not a gardener but was very protective of my flowers and Madeline was not happy being kicked out of the dirt patches she liked to lie in.

As we were living in the country it was time to name our country estate! Home Malone was the working title for this project to move out here but the girls made it very clear this name would not appear on our gate! The quest for a name began. We thought about Malone Manor but Manor was on the gate across the road. We found out the names of some of the previous owners but nothing stood out. This area was a part of Falls

Farm and as we are in the ‘Falls Estate’ we thought about Falls Cottage. We saw some beautiful rainbows when it rained and we thought of Rainbow Cottage. Who knew it would be this hard to find a name? We discovered there is a house in the village called ‘Misthaven’ and one called ‘Misty Ridge’. Majors Creek is often shrouded in mist and a friend suggested ‘Misty Meadows’. We loved it and now have the name on our gate!

Weatherwise we often get the four seasons in one day! It can even be sunny and lovely here and foggy in Braidwood or visa-versa. We learned early to throw a jumper in the car all year round. We even get snow out here! The day it snowed heavily was fantastic. Peter was away and when I opened the curtains in the morning I thought we had a heavy frost. I called the girls and we went outside and realised this was no frost! The poor bunnies hutch was struggling under the amount of snow on its roof and I had to get a shovel and clear it. The girls were getting a lift to school that day and unbeknown to them the bus couldn’t get through but they had an amazing experience driving to school in the snow. As for me the power went out and as our house is fully electric I had no heating, could not see much and therefore went to bed. The power was off for about five hours and during the morning some friends dropped over to see if I was ok. I assured them I was going to stay in bed and they went off to check out the snow around the village. It was very exciting!

We were getting used to this new life and even with my problems we did ok. It meant we had to plan things and be organised but that was how I ran most of my life anyway. Emily joined the local soccer club and Saturday mornings became our main social event as we got to know the other girls and their parents. Caitlin and her friends also hung out at the soccer fields and it was a great way to meet people.

I joined the local VIEW club and enjoyed my monthly meetings with the ladies. Our neighbours would pick me up and drive me and it was a great way to get to know the local ladies.

Friday nights at the Majors Creek pub were the place to be as lots of locals went that night. We would pop down for a drink and a meal and end up staying for hours chatting on the verandah with our new neighbours.

When our friends came out from Canberra they were blown away by how pretty and quiet it was. They loved our house and realised we did not suffer from a lack of modern conveniences out here. I even cooked scones for our visitors. You could see the terror on their faces when I announced. ‘I have made scones!’ I got out the good crockery and cutlery, whipped the cream and scooped out the jam. Then came the moment when they had to eat. The scones were usually rubbery and overcooked but to their credit our visitors ate one or two and made appropriate noises about how wonderful it was to see me turning into Country Woman!