Success Stories
“I think that is why I like your new name, Second Sense. It makes perfect sense to me. When I lost my vision, I lost so much more than just my eyesight. I also lost my confidence and a sense of who I am. I very much appreciate how your staff works with each of us to help us accept our vision loss so we can be who we truly are."
Father Jim's Story
Father Jim, like many blind people, carried a white cane. The problem was he carried it in his bag. “I would rather get lost than be embarrassed,” he explained. “Eventually, it became impossible for me travel. I was afraid to leave my own house.”
Fear immobilizes many people with vision loss. The fear of getting hurt, becoming lost, being embarrassed, being different. Father Jim had seen this with his mother. “My poor mother lived until she was 86, but for the last 10 years of her life she never left the house because of her blindness. She was ashamed and scared. She just gave up.”
Both he and his mother were diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic, degenerative eye disease. It starts slowly – for Father Jim it began in his late 20s. As you age, your vision becomes steadily worse. You make adjustments to your vision loss, you get to a level of acceptance and then you lose more vision. You know this is going to happen, but you don’t know when.
Living with RP has been described as walking a tightrope between the sighted and visually impaired worlds.
After his ordination, Father Jim started out in a parish on Chicago's South Side. Soon, he moved to a new position, working with novices who were contemplating making a permanent commitment to the order. “One must be at peace with what it means to take vows and what that will mean for the rest of your life." Father Jim explained. "Your internal thoughts must be reconciled with your external life.”
Father Jim worked with novices on their spiritual journey to acceptance. He was unaware he was about to embark on his own journey. When he was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, the doctor explained the progression of the disease: first night blindness, then tunnel vision that slowly narrows, and finally near total blindness.
Father Jim fell into a depression and wasn’t sure how he would live with the knowledge that what he saw one day might be gone the next.
This loss of control can be overwhelming and can affect every aspect of your life. Without your support and programs like those at Second Sense, depression can lead to isolation and a life spent locked inside your house, consumed with fear and shame. The life Father Jim saw his mother experience.
Luckily for Father Jim, his order sent him to a facility in Canada that served priests, nuns and others committed to a spiritual life who suffered from depression or anxiety. He spent five months there, learning to accept his vision loss.
Father Jim returned to Chicago and his novices. He accepted his vision loss and learned some rehabilitation skills to function well with his current vision. Over the years, he changed positions and locations, always eager to meet the next challenge. He now serves as chaplain at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park.
However, his vision has continued to get worse. He traveled from his home in Hyde Park to the hospital in Evergreen Park three days each week. He walked the hospital hallways and navigated patients' rooms with all the machines and cords. Potential hazards were around every corner.
Father Jim realized he needed help. He had participated in orientation and mobility training years earlier – learning the proper way to use a white cane – but he found that he relied too much on his vision – vision that was no longer there.
“I was so fortunate to meet Polly at Second Sense. I happened to mention how my vision was affecting my mobility and she asked if I wanted more training in using my cane. I didn’t need to be asked twice.”
“Polly matched me up with Peter, an orientation and mobility specialist. Peter was a blessing. We started in my house. Peter put a blindfold on me and asked me to move around. It was amazing how I didn’t know my own house. The problem was, even though I have had vision loss for years, I still trusted the eyesight I didn’t have."
Father Jim knows he will eventually lose almost all his sight. Using a blindfold during training ensures he has the skills he will need now and in the future. And, since he experiences night blindness, he won't have to worry about getting home before the sun sets.
Peter taught him skills for getting around the hospital, including the ICU. He also worked with Jim’s co-workers, educating them about how they could help.
“My vision loss became a safe topic; not only for my colleagues, but for me, too,” Jim explained. “On one of my walks, Peter asked me if I heard a car. I had to admit I didn’t. Believe it or not, I was embarrassed that I also had hearing loss. I denied it for years. Here I was depending on my sense of hearing more than ever and I was too embarrassed to wear hearing aids.”
“What I have come to understand about myself was that I tried to fake being a sighted person. I was ashamed to appear helpless. But, after working with Peter and the Second Sense staff, I realized that I needed to accept my vision loss and, by asking for help, I made my life so much easier. It is common sense, but it has taken me so long to admit that I was more worried about how I appeared to others than I was in keeping myself safe.”
“After all these years, I have a new sense of myself and my abilities. I am a new man now that I have accepted vision loss’ impact on my life. I have a new energy. I can’t tell you how much effort I wasted trying to hide my vision loss. Now I am no longer tired. I cook for myself and go out with friends and help my patients achieve the blessing of peace that comes with acceptance.”
“It is funny looking back at all I have learned in the last year. I feel like one of those novices I worked with years ago, helping them reconcile their inner thoughts with external facts. I guess it is a matter of live and keep learning.”
“I think that is why I like your new name, Second Sense. It makes perfect sense to me. When I lost my vision, I lost so much more than just my eyesight. I also lost my confidence and a sense of who I am. I very much appreciate how your staff works with each of us to help us accept our vision loss so we can be who we truly are."
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