Blind But Still Able To See Life

July 5, 2012 will be my (our) 52 celebration years of marriage. Can you believe if I tell you that after losing, now 40 pounds since March 21, 2011 at Weight Watchers, I can fit in, if I wanted to, my wedding dress from July 5, 1960?

It has been a long time since I can say that. It is a nice, rather a fantastic feeling.

We met on a blind date, I dislike that word because my mother had a brother and a sister who were both born blind and that is not a sweet word to use for a date.

However, he received my name and phone number from a fellow he knew who had taken me out for half of a date. What is half of a date, it means when you do not like that person and you make up an excuse to go home early. I met that 1/2 date fellow through a young man my boss had hired where I worked in 1952. He was hired in about 1955 because I, who was an assistant to the CEO of a large printing plant, urged the boss Meyer to give him a chance. His name was Irvin and the boss did not want to hire him because he was Jewish. Now Meyer was not an anti-Semite, he was Jewish himself and just thought that a young Jewish fellow would want his own business one day and after being trained as a printer would leave as soon as he got competent in the business, to start his own plant.

I said to Meyer, give him a chance. We had taken him to lunch for a lunch interview at a delly called Attmans. I was impressed by his desire to learn a trade and he was getting married to Renee soon and needed a job immediately.  I tell you, his salary was about $2.00 per hour with about 20 hours of time and a half overtime, giving him probably about $140.00 per week before taxes. Meyer kept resisting and I, who was about 21 at that time, was already a very wise and intelligent observer of people. These were my words that got Irvin hired. "Meyer, how are you as a Jewish young man yourself not wanting to give a fellow Jewish person a chance at a new job. You and your buddies just have launched a new synagogue in our neighborhood and here, you will not hire a person of your faith."

He looked at this young girl of 21 and he said OK. The rest is history. Irvin and I became dear platonic friends and after he married Renee, he invited me to his home for dinner many weekends. On one such night, I met his friend who I shall call Zachary and I went out on a terrible time 1/2 date and never again would that happen with him. A half date meant that I came home after one hour of being with him, because he was not someone I wanted to spend my time with.

He was the one who gave Jerry (my husband now of 51.5 years) my name and number. He told him I would probably be 'easy' because I was quite pretty and I had a blond streak in my dark brown hair. In those days, not many girls did that.

Now every lady, girl and teens have different colors in their hair for beauty sake-young and old.

I use to pay $5 dollars to have it done in the hair salon and it was quite outstanding. When Jerry told me on the phone that Z had given him my name, I told him for 3 consecutive phone calls, no, I was busy. Mom standing in the kitchen where the one phone we had in those lean days said after the third call "give him a chance, just because he knows Z does not make him a jerk too."

So to quiet mom, I said yes and the rest is love history as I call it. We went out two nights in a row and after a few months of dating (he was going to pharmacy school); I had his high school ring on my left finger, which then was the first step of several rings leading to an engagement ring and marriage on Tuesday July 5, 1960.

So the moral of this story, if you believe in something like I saw the potential in Irvin coming to work for us and you also listen to your mommie, life will change for the beautiful and you will be and should be happy.

We have a son, daughter, daughter-in-law, son-in-law and 3 grandsons and one granddaughter. So one became two, then three, four, five, six and one grandchild at a time and our family starting with Elita, and then Jerry is now 10.

From a young woman's intuition on a young man and his hiring, love has encompassed my life for almost 52 years plus two and half years dating and courting.

Sometimes, one must exert them self and have the courage to tell perhaps an older person to do something, the older adult does not seek to do. When my blind Aunt Ruth decided she wanted a career as a singer; it was an unheard of happening that a blind person could go off to a city like New York which is all about hustle and bustle, walking fast, living in a rushed environment. Ruth Weinstein went there, lived in a rooming house in the city and took vocal lessons. She auditioned for a few shows and was told by one nasty interviewer, that a blind girl would never be a hit because she could not learn the facial motions that singers need to do because she could not see herself to practice them. He was very blunt and nasty with her and she felt sad. She did not give up and even found herself on a radio show performing. I believe it was called We The People. We all sat around the radio in about 1941 or so and listened that night to our Aunt Ruth making a debut as a singer. She did very well and went on to sing on shows and events.

One night, a young man who had sight, but was very enamored with blind people and their accomplishments came to listen to the performers. He came back stage and introduced himself to her and they started dating. She informed my mom and her four brothers that she was going to marry this man. They were all startled and feared he might be wanting to ‘take advantage’ of her as sex was called in those days. He did not, he was truly in love with her and they married in New York City a year later. They then made the trip to Baltimore and Mom and Dad gave them a reception in our house. This was about 1943.

Mom cooked and baked for several weeks in advance. There were no freezers in those days and Mom toiled many hours and days to make it a big event. The table in the dining room had all the aspects of a buffet luncheon/dinner and all the relatives came to meet Aunt Ruth’s new husband. One unmarried sister of one of my four uncles’ wives was very envious that this blind girl had landed such an elite fellow, Larry. He truly loved and adored her for thirty-five years and they had a genuinely blessed life. They lived in New York City, frequented every Broadway play, restaurant and event that happened. They went on cruises and she met Thornton Wilder, the writer on one of them and also Richard Burton backstage of one of his plays. She talked with him and he saw she was blind and was quite honored how much she enjoyed the play, even without sight.

She took up the hobby of knitting and her hands knitted as fast as she talked. She made all of her clothing and they even had different colored wool and fancy stiches and patterns. People on one of the cruises could not believe she did the knitting. She felt the different colors by the weight of the different wools, nylons or whatever she used. Her knitting was perfect and she looked beautiful in her hand created dresses. She sang now and then and because she was singing at a charity ball for blind people and Uncle Larry has this deep interest in blind folks; she gained a life partner, lover and husband.

When she lived in the rooming house, the owner had a daughter and she befriended Ruth and Ruth introduced her to her blind brother, George and they wound up marrying too. I wrote a previous article about him called George Joseph or Joseph George.

In my situation, I met my husband on a blind date. In Ruth and Larry’s case, they met because he had a fascination with blind people and how unique and wonderful they were.

So the word blind can mean many things. You could say never be blinded by thinking something about someone or you could say love is blind. In Ruth and Larry, neither applies. They were not blind to their love and they had the insight and wisdom to know that love is not blind. It is full of sight, wonder, achievement, fulfillment and realization. Just because one is different does not make them unequal. Whatever they may lack through loss of faculties at birth or even after, they are still divine creatures capable of supreme lives. They see through their heart and their soul is open to love.