“Never give up.  You can always accomplish your goals if you don’t give up.

I had a stroke that affected my vision.  Well the stroke didn’t really…about a year later they put me on medicines and that’s when I lost most of my vision.  In fact it was worse than this but some of it came back.  Everything I saw was just as white as that white wall.  Then some vision started coming back slowly.

I’m just happy-go-lucky, that’s all, ‘cause I get up in the morning.  Just about all my life I’ve been like that.  You know I think it’s mostly from my mom ‘cause she was always like that all the time.  So I just keep my joy.

When I laugh and joke and carry on for other people, that helps them.  So I feel the way I act helps other people to handle their situations.  When I was in the hospital, the nurses thought I was crazy ‘cause I kept them laughing all the time.

Being blind you have to depend on other people, you know.  I had some pretty good church people so they help me out.  They took up the slack, know what I mean?

There’s been people in my church, by the way I act, they kinda look up to me, you know.  That makes me feel good…in my spirit and more.  When I help them, it helps me too.”