New Sight

 Alicia teared up and looked down at her hands and in a soft voice said she was embarrassed. I thought she meant about the camera so I told her I didn’t have to take her picture if she didn’t want me to but she said “no it’s not the camera I am embarrassed to need help”. She tried hard to hold back her tears, but it was inevitable.

“At my age I shouldn’t be getting help, I should have enough money to pay for a visit to the specialist and for glasses, but I just can’t afford it”.

She told me she had no savings and assumed no job would welcome her due to her age. Alicia relies on the generosity of her youngest daughter to pay for basic necessities and would not feel right asking her daughter for any more. I stayed with Alicia throughout her entire appointment with the Western University College of Optometry students who provide the vision services at Lestonnac. Students perform the various exams alongside a licensed optometrist to prescribe and develop an accurate treatment plan for each patient. Thanks to Lestonnac supporters, patients who need glasses are able to choose from dozens of frames which were donated. In Alicia’s case she needed two pairs of glasses. Alicia put on her first pair of prescription glasses, she looked around smiled and sighed.

She took the reading card and kept smiling as she read every letter she was instructed to read.

The second pair she tried on was also perfect. “Thank you for everything, this means so much to me. If it wasn’t for the you (Lestonnac), I don’t know when or if I would be able to afford getting glasses at all.