“My vision is congenital.  My biggest challenge is the small things. Seeing small things, and getting people to understand that I can’t see small things.  I can’t really clean the house too well ‘cause I just can’t see it.

When I got pregnant, my mother wanted me to abort the baby because she didn’t think I could take care of it.  I’m proud to say I raised that child by myself for eighteen years.  She’s nearly nineteen years old.  My biggest encouragement is that I have raised my child on my own on a fixed income with a disability like this not being able to get around,.  You know, I managed.

When I was raising my child, she wasn’t able to have a lot of the fancy stuff growing up.  But you know, she had a roof over her head.  She had food to eat.  She had a bed to sleep in.  She had heat in the winter.  She had a cool house in the summer.  She had clothes on her back.  She may not have had the fancy stuff, but she had the stuff that she needed.

You know I guess people wanting to put me down, I always try and show ‘em you know hey I can do it!  I may have to go about doing it a different way, but I do it.  And that’s the biggest thing right there.  Regardless I can do it on my own.”