Contact Lenses, Friendsbip and

The poet (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) called them “Ships that pass in the night.”

With the utmost respect, I often think of those random stops when I have been provided comfort as life’s minor miracles.

I remember well when Ralph and I met. because I was forty. It was also the day after that memorable birthday.

When we met I never asked Ralph’s age, but assumed he was yet to celebrate being thirty.

Our lives intertwined due to a succinct remark made by John (14 and the oldest of our three sons) when my birthday wishes were discussed.

I had idly remarked that ‘Someday I would like to try contact lenses.’

Suddenly, I heard John, my ever and still beloved son, reply:

“Mom, you had better do it soon. You are 40 now.”

And that is how I met Ralph, who patiently and persistently introduced and encouraged me on the road to constantly improving contact lens technology.

And, oh, that was ever so long ago. Times changed as so have I while my initial prescription involving sterilization and amount of time evolved..

Ralph was there on that memorable morning (when fragmented and alone after my husband’s death,) I accidentally squirted antiseptic into both eyes rather than saline. His calm guidance over the phone was invaluable,

Tbere were so many other countless occasions, throughout the years (phone calls, and prescription changes) when his expertise, efficiency and Bonne humeur remained constant,

I did not want to lose contact with him after relocating and continued to purchase my updated prescriptions via phone calls and email. But now I must.

Because the once young man is now retiring, As I moved on so, he, too, must,

And I can only wish that“The Wind is always at his back” as Ralph Tisdale of Long Island Opticians says adieu.