Jenny’s story
Life doesn’t end with common eye disease
One look at the list of books on Jenny Schlup’s iPad tells you that being unable to consume books is not an option for the New Plymouth woman. But for four years that’s what happened, as an eye disease called age-related macular degeneration slowly denied her the ability to read type in print. Now, she has access to online audio books and devours them at a rate that would make any book-worm proud.
The four-year gap came after several years of gradual deterioration in her eyesight, to the point where she couldn’t drive, read, or recognise people’s faces.
“I went into denial,” she says. “I didn’t want to join the Blind Foundation – it just didn’t seem like me. It took a while before I relented, and then of course I became aware of the wonderful array of services they have. I discovered this huge audio library.”
She had to overcome another barrier, as well – a reluctance to adopt digital technology, devices like the iPad that have since become a central feature of her life.
The former principal of Waitara Central School says she was always short-sighted, but more than a decade ago noticed she could no longer easily discern her pupils’ stories written in pencil.
“I adopted a different approach for a while. I’d get them to read their work to me.”
An optometrist diagnosed macular degeneration, a condition that damages the macular, the small spot near the centre of the retina needed for sharp central vision and for looking at objects straight ahead. There are two versions – wet and dry – and Jenny has the latter with a gradual thinning of the retina. Nothing could be done to treat it. Her sight was destroyed little by little until she needed to retire in 2006, having led the school since 1991. Driving and reading printed books were out.
One of her greatest embarrassments was not recognising people she met in the street.
“They must have thought I was the biggest snob. I began to wish people would say something like ‘hi, my name is…’ when I came across them.”
She laughed when she thought of how she answered her grandson when he asked what she would want if she was granted one wish.
“I think he thought I would say getting my sight back, and he was almost right. But there’d be a condition – I would want it to come back slowly because there are still so many wonderful books in the audio library that I still haven’t read.”
Article supplied by Taranaki Daily News
