[bksvol-discuss] Coming to My senses
- From: "Shelley L. Rhodes" <rhod3021@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 00:03:51 -0400
Maybe someone could find this for the collection. I know I would like to
read it.
"COMING TO MY SENSES:" A BOOK REVIEW
by Abigail L. Johnson
When you've been able to see all your life, losing your vision to
age-related macular degeneration can be devastating. Some elderly people are
reluctant
to admit they have poor vision and so do not seek the help they need. In
some cases, well-meaning relatives attempt to remove their visually impaired
loved
ones from their own homes and place them in assisted living facilities or
nursing homes where they will be safe. Such is the case for Addie Marsh, the
main character in Pam Rice's novel "Coming to My Senses." When I read this
book, I found it so inspiring and true to life that I would like to share my
experience of the book and its author with others.
Pam Rice lives in Beulah, Colo. and is a rehabilitation teacher for the
state division of vocational rehabilitation. She teaches adults who are
visually
impaired. A graduate of the University of Southern Colorado, she has always
wanted to write and, according to a recent article in "The Pueblo
Chieftain,"
she actually sold a story in 1976 to a teen magazine. But marriage, family,
and a job got in the way of her earlier ambitions. Finally, in 1997, when
her
children were grown, she began work on "Coming to My Senses," a novel
inspired by her work with people who are visually impaired. After several
years of
writing and editing, the book was finally published in 2002 by Five Star, a
subsidiary of the Thorndike publishing empire. The book is available on
cassette
from the Colorado State Library's talking book program and can be accessed
by local talking book libraries.
In Rice's novel, Addie, a woman in her mid-seventies, is losing her vision
to macular degeneration. She lives alone in a rural mountain village in
Colorado.
Her son Joe and his family live in a town about 30 miles away. As the story
begins, Joe is trying unsuccessfully to convince his mother she needs to
move
to an assisted living facility. When he arrives at his mother's cabin
unexpectedly, he finds her fast asleep in a rocker on her porch and stew
burning
on the stove because she had the heat on too high.
As the story unfolds, Addie gradually comes to terms with her visual
impairment. Her close friend and physician encourages her to join a support
group where
she makes new friends. When the group's facilitator, a rehabilitation
teacher, offers to help Addie learn daily living and mobility skills, she
hesitates
at first. But after a fall gives her a concussion, she becomes convinced
that she needs this kind of help. Addie has the appliances in her home
marked
with tactile labels, learns orientation and mobility skills, and starts
learning braille as well. Eventually, she convinces Joe she is perfectly
capable
of living independently in the isolated mountain cabin where she has lived
for years.
There are several subplots to this story. First of all, the story of Addie's
struggle to come to terms with her visual impairment is intermingled with
flashbacks
from Addie's past. Addie and her sister, orphaned as small children, were
raised by a rich uncle in Denver. Addie married her first husband just
before
World War II and he was soon sent overseas after she became pregnant with
her first son. He was killed in action soon after the child's birth. Addie's
second husband was an Army buddy of her first husband; Joe was born soon
after they married. She and her family eventually ended up in the little
cabin
in the mountains where the novel is set.
As Addie slowly adjusts to her visual impairment, she befriends a teenage
girl who moves in with her so-called husband in the cabin next door to
Addie's.
She also befriends a gentleman who moves into an old lumber camp across the
lake from her. This gentleman is a loner at first, but by the end of the
book,
Addie has managed to draw him out. All of these subplots make "Coming to My
Senses" a delightful book to read.
Being visually impaired myself and working with senior citizens who are
visually impaired, I found "Coming to My Senses" very realistic. Addie and
the other
participants in her support group are like several of the elderly people I
have met in the support groups I have facilitated. In fact, Pam Rice's
portrayal
of visual impairment convinced me that she herself is visually impaired.
When I mentioned this to a friend in Colorado who participated in one of the
support
groups she used to facilitate, and who recommended the book to me, he said,
"I hope she's not visually impaired. She's driven me to some of our
meetings!"
I realize now that Pam Rice is one of those sighted people who really
understands visual impairment and I recommend her book to anyone interested
in learning
more about visual impairment and reading an uplifting story at the same
time.
Shelley L. Rhodes and Judson, guiding golden
rhod3021@xxxxxxxxxxxx
"One glance at a book and you hear
the voice of another person, perhaps
someone dead for 1,000 years. To
read is to voyage through time"
~ Carl Sagan
Other related posts:
