A Lesson in the Meaning of Independence

Autor/in	Kelly, Patricia K.
Titel	A Lesson in the Meaning of Independence
Quelle	In: RE:view: Rehabilitation Education for Blindness and Visual Impairment, 35 (2003) 3, S.131-135 (5 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0899-1510
Schlagwörter	Visual Impairments; Independent Living; Daily Living Skills; Rehabilitation; Personal Narratives + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Visual handicap; Sehbehinderung; Selbstverantwortung; Alltagsfertigkeit; Erlebniserzählung
Abstract	After receiving word that a former client had recently passed away, the author reflects on the special time she had spent with her. The client's name was "Beckie"--the author's first set of contacts with her were quite ordinary. As the rehabilitation teacher (RT) serving that territory for the Maine Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the author was assigned Beckie's case for what seemed to be routine RT services. During the first series of visits, the author taught adaptational techniques for standard activities of daily living and shared resources with Beckie, who exhibited positive energy, enthusiasm for learning, and a strong desire to stay in her own home. While in the Navy, Beckie had met her future husband and on their honorable discharge, they bought several hundred acres of what was then rural and isolated Maine. They became homesteaders and named their property Skyfields. Not surprisingly, after widowing in the early 80s, Beckie's first RT goals focused on maintaining the farmhouse and continuing her intellectual endeavors. By the end of the first RT sequence, Beckie considered herself independent. About 18 months later, a stroke had caused her vision to decrease dramatically, as she struggled with other health-related problems. This time, the author's RT instruction focused on environmental adaptations, safety, and changing Beckie's primary literacy mode from visual to aural. She was then again able to consider herself independent. Some months later, Beckie decided that typing was the one skill she lacked that was preventing her from being fully independent, so she contacted the author for further RT instruction. Having typed extensively in her Navy days, Beckie's memory for the keyboard returned quickly. That, coupled with her disciplined daily practice regimen helped her make rapid progress--so she felt that she was almost independent again. The next time the author saw Beckie she was residing on the rehabilitation wing of a nursing home not far from Skyfields. It was not long before the author found herself setting up a portable typewriter in the nursing home, even though Beckie had lost many skills and her advancement progressed slowly. One day, the author learned that Beckie had been discharged from the nursing home and had gone back to Skyfields, feeling she was independent again. Some time later the author, before moving overseas, visited with Beckie, who had lost almost all vision and said that she would feel really independent if she could die at Skyfields. While elderly people are often described as having a twinkle in their eyes, Beckie always had a fire in her eyes. The author describes how she feared meeting Beckie's gaze because she was afraid that time, exhaustion, and illness had extinguished the fire. But she was wrong. In the final moments Beckie shared with the author, Beckie expressed how proud she was of her independence during the nine decades of her life. (ERIC).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10