Seeing Beyond Sight: My Family’s Journey With Blindness

By Sophia Lazar

Throughout my life, my father has been diagnosed with multiple conditions that ultimately put him on an irreversible path toward blindness. He experienced a loss of vision in his left eye from lasting scars from toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease he had as a young child. His one working eye allowed him to be considered legally blind before he was diagnosed with glaucoma; its slow yet destructive progression fully claimed his remaining vision by the time I turned nine years old. There were whispers of other potential diagnoses, such as coloboma and macular degeneration, but they remained unconfirmed.

My younger brother was born around the same time, and it was difficult for my father to adjust to his new reality of being blind in the eyes of a small child. While blindness does not diminish the love and care he provides as a parent, it has required finding alternative ways to navigate tasks that sighted parents might take for granted. It is difficult to ensure my brother’s safety in unfamiliar environments when he cannot rely on his vision and instead must depend on audible and verbal communication. Social interaction can also be challenging because my brother is too young to comprehend the situation, resulting in occasional frustration. Helping my father adapt to his new lifestyle has been the most pressing matter over the last few years, so the effects of his condition on our family have been marginalized. The emotional aspect of adapting to my father’s blindness has been a journey of its own. Initially, there was a period of grief and adjustment as we mourned the loss of his sight.

Although there are still moments of sadness, this journey is filled with growth and resilience as we have adapted as a family. My father’s blindness has taught me that while physical sight may be lost, the vision for a hopeful and fulfilling future remains intact. These lessons have prepared me for facing other adversities in life and have sparked a sense of gratitude within me. Many people take the ability to see, hear, and move around in their bodies for granted. Before seeing it with my own eyes, I, too, had not given much thought to losing these everyday functions. As my family and I continue on this journey, our goal is not just to cope with the challenges of blindness but to thrive despite them while always appreciating life’s simplicities.