Oh, but He That Endures: Challenges Keeps on Coming

Oh, but He That Endures

Challenges Keeps on Coming

John S. Morris

Copyright © 2024 John S. Morris

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2024

ISBN 979-8-89157-520-2 (pbk)

ISBN 979-8-89157-538-7 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1

How It All Got Started

Chapter 2

The Challenge of Growing Up

Chapter 3

Meeting the Challenge

Chapter 4

Challenges Keep on Coming

Chapter 5

The Challenge on the Job

Chapter 6

The Challenge of Making the Move

Chapter 7

The Challenge of Overcoming

Chapter 8

The Challenge of Being Challenged

Chapter 9

The Challenge of Falling in Love

Chapter 10

The Challenge of the Unmerited Favor

About the Author

Acknowledgments

I am a seventy-year-old first-time writer who happens to be legally blind. I would like to impress upon you to know that this is a good family and inspirational story that will hopefully encourage and inspire others especially those who has their physical limitations just as I do. The primary focus of this story is on the life of the upbringing of a little nearsighted fellow who happens to be me. I thought perhaps the first thing that I should try to do in chapter 1 is to introduce you to my family. Secondly in that same chapter, I would like to clear up some things by giving some of my friends and associates the satisfaction of the unfolding of the mystery concerning my nickname that was given to me during my childhood a number of years ago. That is a name that I tried to conceal for a long time. Just in case you are wondering how that came about, well, the answer to that question is revealed in this story.

As a little fellow growing up in the late '50s and early '60s, I used to try to emulate the lifestyle of some of the older fellows who lived on my street. I willfully, deliberately put myself through some things just to make a statement in regard to who or what I was trying to be hoping to find my rightful place or fit in with everybody. As I grew older while being very nearsighted and trying to navigate my way through life, I also developed the ambition to defy the odds in order to do something that some family and friends along with my doctor said that I would never be able to do. Not only that, but also to let them know that only through faith in God that we can do and be whatsoever we so desire.

While I was recuperating from my eye surgery in January 2013, I started thinking about those former days and how good of a time that I had growing up. To this day, I still enjoy engaging in that conversation. But then while I was thinking about having a conversation about those good times, I thought to myself, why not write about them? So after I was able to contact the department for the blind, I was able to enroll in a computer class that propelled me to where I am today. It was after several months of computer training and some encouragement that I began to harness the technique of writing. So in 2014, I began to start writing my life's story.

In the contents of this story, there is some good and common-sense information that I believe a broader audience of some different aged people could relate to while struggling to resolve some of their issues as well as to encouraged them. Also in this story are some segments of good humor that will lift your spirit and give you a good laugh which I believe is good therapy for longevity. Because this is a nonfictional story, I chose not to reveal some of the real names of the characters for personal reasons.

Before I end this expression, I would like to take the time to express my appreciation and to say thank you to my instructor, Mrs. Irene Peters, for teaching me how to hornets the technique of writing by using a certain type of software. Also, I would like to thank Mr. David Ward for the time that he spent teaching me some of the fundamentals of the computer. Then I would like to say thanks to my niece, Ms. La Vesta Morris, for being a troubleshooter person for me since at times it appeared as if I didn't know what I was doing. Plus I want to thank my sister, Ms. Patricia Boyd, for helping me during all the research that she has done on my behalf.

Introduction

There is an old expression that said, An idol's mind is a devil's workshop. Just as others have said, I to have found myself in that same state of mind. In the offset of time during one cold winter morning while sitting in my bedroom, I occasionally found myself just staring at whatever I could set my sight on. While sitting there, I had many thoughts and ideas to have crossed my mind that helped me get through my crisis. You see, after having lost the majority of my sight in 2013, with nothing else better to do, it was then that I began to think very seriously about what I was going to do with my life from that point going forward. I also had plenty of time to think about how I was blessed to have been able to navigate through a lot of trying experiences in my lifetime while growing up not by sight alone but by instinct and common sense.

Upon reading this story, you will discover that this is about my life as a little nearsighted boy who had not the slightest idea as to what kind of hand life was going to deal me while growing up. Just for the record, I was one of eight nearsighted children who mostly fell victim to a horrible eye disease that is called glaucoma. However, I must say that while growing up as a child, despite my circumstances, I felt as if I had a good life. Basically as a child, I felt as if I had done mostly, if not all, the things that a typical child would do. I had played so vigorously and hard until I just did not think about the fact that I was visually challenged until after I started school. When I was old enough to understand what glaucoma was, it was then that I tried to gather up all the information that I could so that I might know how to preserve my sight. Once I matured in age, I began to do some research about that horrible disease. Here is what I found out.

I have discovered that glaucoma is that silent predator that robbed a lot of people of their sight. Now, here is not something that I have heard but rather is what I know for a fact based on my experiences in the doctor's offices. Even though I am not licensed to practice medicine, I have developed enough sense to know that glaucoma is a disease that should not be ignored. Speaking from a personal experience and advocator, let me make an appeal to all of you parents, both mothers and fathers, along with you guardians, to get your children's eyes checked for glaucoma at least once a year. You see, we all need to know that glaucoma can be hereditary and cannot be cured, but it can be treated and controlled. It is better to be safe than sorry because there are a lot of people who don't know that they already have this horrible disease.

As a victim, I would like to encourage everybody to get a thorough eye exam at least once a year. Let me tell you something, glaucoma will sneak up on you at any age without any warning, and before you know it, your sight will be diminished to the extent where you will find yourself legally blind. Now, here is what I have found out about being legally blind. It doesn't mean total blindness, but it means having your sight narrowed down to 20/200 or higher. This transformation takes place when a buildup of fluid gathers behind the eye and remain there for a short span of time untreated. Whatever you do, don't take your sight for granted because once your glaucoma rises extremely high and you don't get the proper medication to treat it or any blazer treatment to bring it down, then you are headed for trouble.

Let me put it this way. I have learned that glaucoma is a buildup of fluid behind the eye, and when it goes untreated, it can and will kill the optic nerve once the retina becomes detached. Once the optic nerves are dead, then your sight is gone forever. I think it dawned on me only after I started school that I realized that I had a visual problem. Once I had my first experience in the classroom, I realized then how important my eyes were to me especially when I came face-to-face with the task of trying to read from the textbooks and literally burying my head in them in order to see what I was reading or the chalkboard when I had to get up out of my seat and walk to the front of the room to the board in order to read what was on it. It was at that point unknown to me that my problems only just began. After I began to grow and mature in age, I began not only to depend on my sight to navigate through life but also with my common sense and instinct.

Just in case you are wondering if I was bitter or angry because of my misfortune, then the answer will have to be no. But if you were to ask me if I was disappointed, then the answer would be yes. I answered yes to that particular question because I had high hopes of playing some sports while in school. Plus I hoped to someday get my driver's license. But in spite of it all, I was still content with what sight that I had. It was after I grew past my childhood stage and became a matured young man that my challenges became more of a challenge. Apart from this story, because of the elevation of my glaucoma in January of 2013, I lost 98.5 percent of my sight. It was at that point that I became a nervous wreck. Never before have I ever known fear the way I did when I started losing the majority of my sight, knowing that I could go completely blind. It was then that I came to a hasty conclusion that I was not going to just sit there and do nothing with my life. So I began to think long term about what I was going to do as a husband, homeowner, and a co-provider. While I was at home recuperating from my surgery, I was trying to picture in my mind just what I was going to do with the rest of my life in terms of what I was going to do with what sight that I had left.

At that time, many thoughts went through my mind. Briefly, I found myself in a state of worthlessness. I thought that my mishap rendered me feeling useless and unproductive. I thought about whether I was going to be able to take the trash out to the curve anymore or cut my grass or maybe just take a walk around the neighborhood to get my exercise. Those were just a few things among others that crossed my mind at that time. While I was sitting in my bedroom that morning, I began to recognize just how easy it was for me to drift in to an oasis of despair. It was within the course of that day that I felt the urgency to try and figure out how to do something creative with my life. So instead of me sitting around the house feeling sorry for myself, I decided that I was going to contact the department for the blind to see what kind of programs that was available that I might be able to enroll in so that I could feel independent again.

Chapter 1

How It All Got Started

For the longest of time, I was thinking about what it was going to take for me to start telling the story about my life's journey. Being the old man that I am, I have found it to be very refreshing to be able to recall some of the former things that I experienced during my early years. It gets even better when I am able to share it with those whom I grew up with, especially those who lived in that northeast area of Roanoke where I was raised.

Perhaps you are wondering what is it that makes my story any different from anybody else's story. Well, let me try to clear up matters by saying this. Have you ever heard that old expression that said, You will never know what another person is feeling unless you have walked in their shoes? I know that everybody has a story to tell, but no one can tell my story the way that I can. No one can I tell anyone's story for them. So this is what I would have you to know. As it was after I worked most of my lifetime and afterward retired, I began to think about all the struggles that I endured and was able to overcome by persevering and being persistent. It was during the early part of 2014 after I recovered from eye surgery that I decided to get some computer skills under my belt so that I could start writing. So I enrolled in a computer class and afterward begun my storytelling.

It was in that year of 2014 that I started writing about how devastated my wife and I were by a fire that destroyed our home that we purchased back in 1998. I can remember so vividly it was in April 2, 2012, at four o'clock how my wife and I, along with my goddaughter and nephew who was visiting us, were able to escape from that devastating fire, realizing that things could have very well gone another way. In other words, we could have fallen victim to an unexplained and unintended experience that could have changed our lives completely. Oh, but thanks be unto God that we are still around to talk about it.

I wonder, have you ever heard that old expression that said, Curiosity always kills the cat? You know, I am inclined to believe that there is some truth to that old saying. Well, just in case you might be wondering as to whether or not we had any insurance on our home at that time, the answer would be yes. It was shortly after we purchased our first home in '98 that I developed one of those silly notions during that time that led me to believe that since we were able to purchase our home without having a house note, we could save some money by not putting any insurance on it at that time. Now, how we were able to make that purchase at that particular time would need to be another story for a later day. After having taken the time to give it second thought to that notion at that time, I couldn't figure out what could have possibly possessed me to even consider not insuring my home. Oh, but I am so glad that I had a change of heart and indeed did insure our home.

Every once in a while, my wife and I revisited those moments when we had to flee from that devastating fire. We would oftentimes talk about where we are today and where we could have been if I had not decided to put some insurance coverage on our home. Well, it wasn't long afterward that we were able to recover from that fire and start looking for another place to live. After we purchased another home, it became a place where we could manage and really enjoy and better entertain our family and friends in.

Just when I was really beginning to enjoy our home and relish my new riding mower that I just bought, it seemed as if in the month of January 2013 that the bottom just dropped out of everything. Here was what happened. I lost a great deal of my sight due to some complications following the surgery that I had on my eyes because of my glaucoma. Just before I practically lost the majority of my sight, my wife and I on different occasions invited some of my family members along with some of our friends to come by. Actually, it seemed as if someone was coming by every weekend to visit just to offer up some assistance or encouragement to us.

Occasionally, when they would meet up at our house on the weekends, we would sit on the back deck while the weather was nice and maybe throw a little something on the grill or perhaps go downstairs in the basement and eat a little something and play a few hands of spades or bid whist. I tell you, we would have the best of times and have some good clean fun. Even though things had changed in my life and I had gone to a dark place, I was blessed to have been able to revamp from it both physically and spiritually. Though I can no longer see well enough to do some of the things that I used to, I still enjoyed my family and friends when they would come around just to visit especially on the weekends.

Before I go any further with this story, let me take this time and try to clear up the myth concerning us church folks by saying that there is nothing wrong with churchgoers or Christians enjoying themselves and having some good, clean fun. I really don't believe that we always have to be drinking any alcohol or gambling and doing a lot of cussing and carrying on in order to have a good time. However, there are a few of my family members as well as friends who like to indulge as my dad used to say have a little clucker every now and then before coming by.

I must say that whenever they would come by, they would always have the greatest of respect for me and my wife in our home. If I was to be honest about things, I would love it when they would come around because they would always brighten up my day. You see, I am family-oriented, and I love it when family would come together like that. Now, I don't want to appear as if I am being hypocritical, and I certainly don't want to give any one the wrong impression about me as if I was better than anyone else because I, too, was out there doing my thing.

Every once in a while, whenever we would get together as a family, we would always manage to talk about where we are today and where we used to be as well as that good life that we used to have while we were living in the northeast part of the city of Roanoke, Virginia. I believe that if you were to meet someone who once lived in that part of the city and asked them about the kind of place it was then, then no doubt someone would have told you that northeast was a close-knitted area especially in the black neighborhood. They probably would also tell you that it was a place where just about everybody knew somebody who knew something about everybody.

In looking back over my life, a many of years have passed, and I have found it to have been very refreshing when I was able to meet up with some of my old friends that I grew up with. Regardless to whether I was at some church or maybe a department store or perhaps the grocery store, it has been my delight every now and then to have been able to meet up with some of my longtime childhood friends.

Well, about a year or so ago, when my wife and I went to one of our local grocery stores to do a little shopping, the strangest thing happened to me. While we were going through the routine of browsing around, I heard a loud voice coming from the far end of that aisle calling me by my nickname, saying, Hey, Cake. When I heard my nickname billowed out like that, it was so surprising and heartwarming to me because I had an idea whose voice it was. I then turned around as if I was trying to see who it was calling me. No sooner than I heard that voice even though I couldn't see well enough to tell whose voice it really was and in spite of the fact that fifty years or more passed, I could still recognize my friend's voice. Just as my friend was walking down the grocery aisle toward me, he continued talking, and the more that he talked, the more of a certainty that I knew it was him. After my friend came near to where I was, I was so glad that we had the time to embrace each other and talk again. As we began to reminisce over the good life that we had, I am persuaded to say that we had some grand old times back then. I believe that I would do it all over again if I had the opportunity to do so. Of course, I probably would do some things a little differently.

Well, after my friend and I finished our conversation and my wife and I finished grocery shopping, we then left to go home. No sooner than we left the store that I began to talk to my wife about the kind of life that we had as little fellows while growing up. After I got home and we got all the groceries put up, I really started to reminisce over those good times that we used to have back in the day.

Some of my most enjoyable years were in the early and midsixties. Back then, life was very challenging and yet good to me. I must say that those years spent were proven to have been very educational for me knowing that over the years, a lot of our ideas and some of the experiences that we had back then are much more different today.

I believe that if you could turn the hand of time back at least sixty years, then you would know just what I am talking about. If you will, try to familiarize yourself with some of those times that are listed here. You know, if we were to speak to some of these youngsters today about those experiences that we had back then, they probably would look at us as if we