People I remember most

  

March 7, 2008

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  I’ve written many feature stories and articles about people. Some of them are etched in my mind more than others.

There was a blind Air Force wife who had a one year old sighted baby.  I interviewed her in base housing at now defunct Blytheville Air Force Base. The woman’s husband, a lieutenant, was away on military duty at lot, so the main care of the baby was left to the mother. The baby was named Christie Noel because she was born at Christmas time.

The tiny toddler was beautiful. She wore little bells on her white shoes so that her mother could hear the bells jingle and know where the toddler might be. At one point the baby stopped running abut the room and laid her head in her mother’s lap. She gazed at me, and sucked her thumb. The mother touched the baby’s head. I snapped the photograph that would be used to accompany my story.

I asked the mother to describe her baby to me.

She said, ” I don’t really know what she looks like, but I know she’s pretty. She described what she thought the baby looked like from touch and feel.

I should mention that the mother had been sighted until she was about 13.   An  infection had caused her to become blind.

The mother told me about her coping skills of caring for the baby and her household.

I asked her about her fears and she surprised me with her answer.
“Spiders,” she said. “I’m afraid Christie might try to pick up a spider.”