Sight-Impaired Clubs Brighten Lives

When Kate Smalley began losing her vision, she was reluctant to tell her friends. They found out, however, while playing a round of golf with her one morning. Smalley carefully aligned her club and smacked a mushroom, blowing it to pieces, while her ball sat untouched a few yards away. "If you couldn't laugh about this, you'd go nuts," she says of aging. "I have a horn out of my ear, telescopic lenses and cane in my hand."

Smalley, 88, of Holmes Beach in Manatee County, still plays golf when she feels up to it - with bright orange balls. She suffers from macular degeneration, a partial loss of vision that mostly affects older people. She usually sees only disembodied parts of a full picture, with some portions totally blocked out.

Smalley helped start a support group on Anna Maria Island five years ago. The group is one of a dozen across Southwest Florida to help members deal with the trauma and disruption that comes with losing one's sight. Members talk about the stigma of carrying a white cane, the difficulty of mobility, the embarrassment of not recognizing friends and acquaintances. They also address other aging problems - hearing and memory loss - that are compounded by being visually impaired.

Most members of visually impaired support groups across Southwest Florida are older than 65. The Holmes Beach group has about a half-dozen volunteer drivers who are on call for members in need of a ride to the group meetings, the doctor's office or the grocery store. A trip to the grocery store usually turns out to be something more, said volunteer Burdette Doerr of Manatee County: "When you get them out, they say, ‘Do you think we could stop and get some ice cream?'" "It's such a treat for them to get out," Doerr said.

Dorothy Cook started a similar group in Venice six years ago. Her group helps members deal with the initial grief and feelings of awkwardness when they lose part or all of their vision. If someone breaks down in a meeting, the others understand the pain, Cook said. "People don't want other people to know they can't see," she said. "They go to church and pick up the hymnals upside down. People think they're snobbish, because they don't recognize them (anymore)." "This is where support groups help - they help them accept what they have and not be ashamed of it," she said. "We're really very valiant spirits."

For many members of visual support groups in the Sarasota/Manatee/Charlotte area, the group meetings are a rare chance to get out and socialize - enjoy times they otherwise could not, Margie Jackson said. Jackson is a case manager for the Manasota Lighthouse for the Blind. "Most of them are older, and they are left with a lot of time on their hands - when they're struck at home and can't carry on with their hobbies or play cards," she said. "They need ways - meaningful ways - to fill their time."

The Poke-A-Dots in Bradenton - named after the Braille alphabet - found a formula that has worked for 29 years. Members make a point of not talking about what ails them. "No one sits and gripes, ‘I can't do this,'" said Kevin Frost of Bradenton, one of the younger members. "We don't dwell on it. It's more what we can do than what we can't do." Poke-A-Dots' 40 members meet every week at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bradenton. Members regularly take field trips, go out to lunch and take in theater productions. Members said they look forward to the get-togethers.

They receive rides from volunteer drivers and from the Handi-Bus, run by Manatee County Transit Services. Mary McElfres, a group volunteer for 19 years, said she is continually amazed by the members' high spirits. When she visits their homes, they do not want her help, she says. "I never feel so useless as I do with this group. They put you to shame the way they go around doing things," she said. They cook, sew, clean - they do everything." The majority of the group is older, but several members are in their 30s and 40s.

At a recent meeting they sat at round tables, chatting and enjoying the coffee and pastries served by volunteers. They often did not know just who was present - until the roll was called. "Oh, hello, Delores!" a few called when Delores Gomez, 95, answered the roll. "They definitely are making a difference, " Jackson said of the social and support groups. "They just need to meet with each other for the mutual support."

Wanda Pooley, 73, has had more than 50 years to adjust to her total loss of sight. Hereditary glaucoma was passed to her from her mother's side of the family, and Pooley remembers the day when, at 21, she lost the vision in her one sighted eye. She was reading the newspaper comics. "I expected it, bit it was still a blow - just like plunging into a deep, black hole" she said. Pooley moved to Bradenton from Michigan 41 years ago and helped start the Poke-A-Dots in 1970. She remembers how it was before support groups and before organizations like the Lighthouse was created.

She said older people are hit the hardest by conditions such as macular degeneration, which robs sufferers of their independence and mobility. "A few I tried to help, years ago, they refused," Pooley said. "They just keep going to different doctors, who said they couldn't help them. They just wouldn't accept it." Poke-A-Dots popularity has soared in recent years as more and more older residents move to Manatee and Sarasota counties, Pooley said.