Let's start at the beginning....It all began one cold, wintry December day in Austin, Texas at St. David's Hospital. Actually, I have no clue about the weather, but my little ole blind mother labored for over a day and a half. She wanted a natural birth, but I would not cooperate and therefore, I was taken via c-section. My mom and dad had planned to name me Sheryl Diane, after her best friend, but as soon as dad saw me, he said, "Well, Mary Sue, we can name her Sheryl, but she looks like a Cindy to me." So, Cynthia Diane it was.
Let me go back here just for a minute and introduce you to the characters of this play. My mom, is Mary Sue and she was born in Huntsville, Texas to Walter Thomas and Mary Dee Cauthen. During my grandmother's pregnancy with my mom, my grandmother fell off the back porch. It is believed that this fall caused my mother's eyes to stop development. When she was born, no one really paid attention to the fact that she wasn't noticing lights, or changes in scenery or following objects. My grandfather was the first person to make the doctors aware of what he believed to be quite a serious visual problem. After, many dr. appointments my mother was diagnosed with congenital glaucoma. Probably, now a days, she would have a totally different diagnosis, but back then little was known about children who were blind from birth. All, my life my mother has worried that I, too, would have glaucoma, but fortunately, I just have bad eye sight. No glaucoma.
For our second actor, we have my father, Dennis Ray Melton. For the sake of my story, let's just call him Dad. He was born to Jack Madison and Clara Smith Melton. Sadly, I never knew my grandfather nor did my dad for very long. He was killed in a car crash when my father was only four. My grandmother never remarried and worked very hard to support my dad and his older brother Johnny. Since she was usually working several jobs to pay the bills, my great grandparents were my dad's primary guardians for much of his life. My father was also a vietnam war veteran. He served two tours and the day before he was to come home on his final tour he was hit by shrapnel. He lost vision in one eye and had fairly major injuries to his back and leg.
My parents actually met at the Broken Spoke in Austin. If you don't know what the Broken Spoke is, I suggest you go to Austin and find out. It is a special place and I'm betting the decor hasn't changed much since my parents met back in the 60's.
Are you following this so far? She's blind and he is legally blind in one eye, oh and he has PTSD. This has nothing but interesting written all over it right?
Just you wait....there will be marriages, divorces, deaths, affairs, drunken bar piano bar singing, cars hitting cows, SWAT team stand offs, college binge drinking (my mother not me), motorcycle rides from blind folks, and the list could go on.
I will do my best to add a little each day. I'm still trying to figure out this whole blogger, thing. I'm sure I'll get better with time. Please be patient with me.
Let me go back here just for a minute and introduce you to the characters of this play. My mom, is Mary Sue and she was born in Huntsville, Texas to Walter Thomas and Mary Dee Cauthen. During my grandmother's pregnancy with my mom, my grandmother fell off the back porch. It is believed that this fall caused my mother's eyes to stop development. When she was born, no one really paid attention to the fact that she wasn't noticing lights, or changes in scenery or following objects. My grandfather was the first person to make the doctors aware of what he believed to be quite a serious visual problem. After, many dr. appointments my mother was diagnosed with congenital glaucoma. Probably, now a days, she would have a totally different diagnosis, but back then little was known about children who were blind from birth. All, my life my mother has worried that I, too, would have glaucoma, but fortunately, I just have bad eye sight. No glaucoma.
For our second actor, we have my father, Dennis Ray Melton. For the sake of my story, let's just call him Dad. He was born to Jack Madison and Clara Smith Melton. Sadly, I never knew my grandfather nor did my dad for very long. He was killed in a car crash when my father was only four. My grandmother never remarried and worked very hard to support my dad and his older brother Johnny. Since she was usually working several jobs to pay the bills, my great grandparents were my dad's primary guardians for much of his life. My father was also a vietnam war veteran. He served two tours and the day before he was to come home on his final tour he was hit by shrapnel. He lost vision in one eye and had fairly major injuries to his back and leg.
My parents actually met at the Broken Spoke in Austin. If you don't know what the Broken Spoke is, I suggest you go to Austin and find out. It is a special place and I'm betting the decor hasn't changed much since my parents met back in the 60's.
Are you following this so far? She's blind and he is legally blind in one eye, oh and he has PTSD. This has nothing but interesting written all over it right?
Just you wait....there will be marriages, divorces, deaths, affairs, drunken bar piano bar singing, cars hitting cows, SWAT team stand offs, college binge drinking (my mother not me), motorcycle rides from blind folks, and the list could go on.
I will do my best to add a little each day. I'm still trying to figure out this whole blogger, thing. I'm sure I'll get better with time. Please be patient with me.
This is awesome!
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