Another echo from the past ....
Years ago we had an employment agency here in town. One morning we heard a series of tires screaching and horns blowing and in a few minutes we heard a commotion in the hallway, and a young man came sauntering in.
He went face to face, literally, with our receptionist, got an application, sat down, nose and eyes almost touching the paper, started filling it out. Someone took him in tow and helped him fill out the application. He was not blind, but only had a little sight.
I ended up interviewing him.
He had a series of jobs, his latest, running a small food stand in our courthouse. I asked him why he left.
"I got fired, the only way I could tell when the hot dogs were done was when they started burning, and I had to either smell or get very close to the items so I knew what they were."
I went through what we called a "Courtesy Interview." There just were not that many openings for a man that was almost blind.
Found out during our conversation, the reason for all the traffic noise, Eddy just took off across streets, he hoped people would see him before they hit him, thus the horns and screeching tires.
You had to like Eddy, he was very personable. Many mornings he would head for a dry cleaners in town, and spend the day with the delivery man, in his truck, just riding around town. He lived a fairly normal life. In talking with some of his friends I learned that almost each afternoon he would visit the local funeral home downtown to see who was there. One could picture Eddy, standing at the casket, leaning over, nose to nose, to see who had died.
At the end of the interview I asked him what kind of financial help he got each month.
"I don't get none."
"Social Security, DSB, anything like that you get?"
"No, nothing, just what my Mom gives me."
I made a call to the DSB, (Department for Services for the Blind) and arranged an appointment for Eddy.
A week or so later, we hard horns, screeching, we knew Eddy was on his way.
He wanted to thank me, he was making all sorts of money now, getting all sorts of aide, getting home visits, they got him a "cane" and he was doing well.
I lost track of Eddy, I saw him years later, in a nursing home (around Christmas and I was doing Santa). I did a "Ho, Ho, Ho, how are you this Christmas Eddy Stream?"
I got a big broad grin and a smile.
