My Eye is Gone

My Eye is Gone

The Facebook memory popped up on my computer screen causing me to halt immediately. I sat silently, tears welling up in the corner of my eyes, remembering when I first heard the news. Though the connection started as a relationship involving landscape services performed at my home, through the years it expanded in to something much more meaningful. A dear friendship. It did not matter that sometimes there were challenges with communication due to a language barrier. We both appreciated what each other brought to our friendship. The celebrations through the years that we talked about, exchanges of family pictures we discussed, family loss, and numerous shared laughs. However, on that warm summer day as I stood looking at my friend with a patch covering his eye, the evident sadness, and hurried speech with its heavy accent attempting to tell me something informed me this was obviously important. Reaching for a wrist I looked and attempted to regulate the pace. “Tell me again because I don’t understand,” I began. Starting once more, you attempted to calm down as I fixated on your lips. My eyes widened taking in the four words you said to me that I will never forget. “My eye is gone.”

Despite the rising temperature that day, I suddenly felt hotter than before, barely able to catch my breath in the muggy air. Somehow, I knew that what was being explained to me, could not be correct. An eye does not just disappear, and how could something so cruel happen to this sweet person that I had known for the last ten years? An individual that would do anything for another could not be suffering like this. But, there you stood looking helpless and explaining the best you could a scenario of what happened. An event changing your entire life in a flash.

While working in a customer’s yard sans safety goggles the lawn mower ran over a loose nail, causing it to fly through the air and lodge into your eye. I was at a loss for words, visualizing this disaster, and stunned to learn the eye had been removed already. Doctors determined it had been damaged too severely to be saved. We shared tears that day, and many conversations. Cards were mailed to you over the next numerous weeks. I wanted to present you with encouraging messages. While your spirits were down, I did my best to keep them up. It was difficult to see a face that usually presented a welcoming smile, become sullen. However, it was understandable. How I wished there was something more I could do to offer encouragement to you. Some sort of declaration to hang on to hope, something I knew would reach you in your darkest moments. Despite being uncertain if I was finding the correct words to connect, I wanted you to know that despite not having much family in the area-you were not alone. Each day I took time to sit silently, seeking some sense of direction. I wanted a solution that extended beyond me. Unsure of what it all meant, but one day the answer did come to me. In that moment I felt it, and I knew my friend would get a new eye.

I had almost forgotten the numerous stories a friend of mine had told me through the years about the troubles she had experienced with her eyesight. Poor vision was a part of her history. However, she was losing sight in her right eye. I recall her saying “I need another one.” A couple of years later she got on the bus after work with a gleam showing in her eye. Something was different, I could sense it in the air the moment I saw her. It was then that I learned she had received a new eye from the Lions Eye Bank. Prior to that, I must admit I did not fully understand the possibility of this becoming a reality. However, something told me to share this story with my friend, John in this moment. I did, and I looked the telephone number up and encouraged him to call and explain his situation the next morning. He did not believe they would understand him, or his situation because of his language skills. John looked at me as if I had lost my mind, and told me he had never heard of such a thing happening in Vietnam.

Our conversation continued, and I reminded him if you speak from the heart, that is what will lead the direction. If necessary I said “you will call them every day.” This place of business was the answer for him. Don’t ask me how I knew this, but I just felt it strongly. Miraculously within a couple of months, I was proven right.

The first time John and I reconnected after he had recovered from surgery, we stood in my front yard and to my surprise a patch was slowly removed from his injured eye. Two beautiful eyes looked back at me. He remained silent, staring at me, waiting - it slowly registered what had occurred. “Can you see me?” I asked. He nodded his head, Yes. We began hugging tightly- a mixture of emotions flowing: laughter, tears, shouts of joy, claps…it all escaped at once, and we did not care who saw us. Some of the neighbors could be seen looking towards us with facial expressions full of confusion. We shouted louder, there was much to celebrate. And, we have not stopped celebrating this miracle since.

Glancing at my Facebook screen a final time, I smiled widely once more. Remembering the many lessons learned during a difficult period of time. The importance of never giving up, even when there doesn’t seem to be anything to hope for. The continuous use of safety equipment to aid in the prevention of accidents is a must, and I will always remember to listen closely to the stories that are shared by others. You never know when that information may be the one thing that is meant to be save another.