Insight

Staff photo by Dan Iverson

Monica Buboltz looks through a magnifying glass in order to read a newspaper. Buboltz was born with anurida, which means she doesn't have irises in her eyes. "Having no irises is like having your eyes permanently dilated," Buboltz said. Consequently, her eyes are sensitive to light.

"We just want to be treated like normal people who have an affliction. Ours just happens to be that we have lost our sight," said Charlene Childry.

Childry, 36, is one of three New Ulm women who, by their own example, are showing that individuals without sight, or very limited sight, can lead very normal lives just like you and me.

Staff photo by Dan Iverson

Charlene Childry helps her son Nicholas, 4, put together a puzzle, using her mind to visualize where the pieces go. Childry was only two years old when she lost her vision, but she still remembers seeing certain things -- namely, the green grass.

Each arrived at their current situation by a different route.

Cancer claimed Childry's vision as a child. Monica Buboltz was born without irises, but transplant surgery upgraded her vision so that now she is classified as legally blind. Bonnie Schirlinger had 20-20 vision until diabetes robbed her of her sight at age 24.

Each has reached an accord with her affliction that could well be a model for anyone, sighted or not, who is facing a difficult challenge in life.

With a sense of humor and a will to overcome, each has learned to cope and raise a family in a manner that would be the envy of sighted parents.

"Before my daughter (who is 8) goes off to school in the morning, she has to tell me the colors of the outfit she is wearing. I don't want her going off to school with colors that clash," Childry said.

She admits a motivating factor for that kind of attention to detail comes from her fear that people will say the child is wearing clothes that clash "because mom is blind and didn't know."

She also convinced a Russian judge that she was capable of caring for children in adopting a Russian boy, now 4.

"I had an easier time of convincing a Russian judge than I did people here so I think that says a lot. You have to get to the person who will really listen."

But the biggest gripe the three women have is the assumption often made by people with whom they come in contact.

"People just assume that our husbands are doing our work for us," Childry fumes. "I do the laundry; I cook; I do the vacuuming, and I work (as an occupational therapist)."

"That makes me so angry, too," Schirlinger said.

She does the same type of household chores, and she serves, as does Childry, on the New Ulm Human Rights Commission.

Raising children hasn't been much more of an obstacle for these women than for sighted parents.

"Usually, I can tell what my daughter is up to, and I'll tell her not to be doing that. She can't figure out how I could tell. But I've got ears, and she forgets I was young once myself so I know what goes on," Childry said.

She was 2 1/2 years old when she went blind from retinal blastoma, a childhood cancer of the eyes.

"There were two things the doctors told my parents. Don't ever cry in front of your child because that will teach her to feel sorry for herself and expect the same from your child as you do the other children. If they get punished for doing something, make sure she gets punished for doing that same thing and expect her to do things," Childry recalled.

"I later learned that was very rare for eye doctors to be that positive and expect that routine because even today I hear people get quite a negative (input) at times."

Staff photo by Dan Iverson

Charlene Childry reads to her children by using a book with braille text. She visualizes the story by asking her children to explain each illustration or picture to her.

She went to Headstart and kindergarten in her hometown of Winthrop, but then she started first grade at the School for the Blind in Faribault. By the second grade, she was being mainstreamed into the Faribault Public School System for half of a school day. By the eighth grade, she was mainstreaming nearly the entire school day.

"They decided that's kind of crazy so 'let's send her back home to Winthrop to her own public high school.' Then, I had my books in braille, and they had a person who would read tests that hadn't gotten brailled yet," Childry said.

After graduating from Winthrop High School, she went on to college to get a degree as an occupational therapy assistant with a minor in early childhood development.

"I've never quite finished the bachelor's (degree) yet, but that has nothing to do with being blind. It has to do with moving around and having a baby. That put things on hold."

She worked for seven years at the New Ulm Medical Center hospital. Now, she's a rehabilitation instructor for the State Services for the Blind, helping senior citizens who are losing their sight adjust to their new challenges.

A rare affliction in which there is no iris in the eye robbed Buboltz of most of her vision. Her father was born without an iris in one eye, but both her eyes were affected. Not only is the iris missing but the condition causes cataracts and degeneration of the cornea. All of that happened to Buboltz' eyes.

"I made it through school, graduated from Gibbon High School. it was hard, but I made it through and went on to college and became an X-ray technician. I've worked in New Ulm in the medical field for 30 years in different positions because I couldn't continue in X-ray after a while. The hospital offered different positions, but I really wasn't comfortable with where I was at so I went into home care," Buboltz related.

Through an unusual sequence of events Buboltz was able to drive for a short period of time.

Staff photo by Steve Muscatello

Bonnie Schirlinger had 20-20 vision until diabetes robbed her of her sight at age 24.

"I had a corneal transplant and two years after the transplant, I had a rejection, and for some unknown reason (which) the doctors don't why it happens, you can end up with a little bit better vision and that's what happened to me. They were able to reverse it and save the transplant," she explained.

"Two years after (the transplant), it just happened one night. My vision just became blurry, and (there was) a lot of pain above my eyebrow. The eye looked kind of red, and those are symptoms of a rejection. That it happened two years after (the transplant) was kind of weird," she continued.

"A couple months after that, I said, during my eye check, 'Oh, if I get this one right, I can drive, right?" The doctor said, 'You don't drive?' I said, 'No, I've never been able to, and she said, 'Oh, really, well, I'm going to do all the paperwork,' and she put (it) on my chart," Buboltz related.

"The (other) doctor came in and looked at it, and he goes, 'Hmm, you want to drive, huh? Well, all right as long you don't drive in my neighborhood,'" she said, laughing.

As she hadn't ever had driver's training, she had to wait until the next summer to take it.

"My husband had the car all ready because that was his dream. Boy, if he didn't have to go into another store, that would make him happy. Or wait for me. In fact, he had said that if he ever won the lottery, that was what he was going to do was buy me a chauffeur to drive me around."

She was doing home care at the time so she was able to drive to her appointments with a restricted license.

"Then, I had another eye surgery, and I couldn't drive any more. I was off work for about a year, and then they asked me if I wanted to be greeter-hostess at the clinic. That's what I'm doing now."

Because Schirlinger once enjoyed 20-20 vision and then had it taken away after she reached adulthood, her path to being without sight was perhaps more rocky, but she has discovered that life still can be good.

Her concerns about losing her sight began at age 11 when she was told that she had diabetes. Her first thought was of an elderly man, whom she called "grandpa," who had lost his sight as a result of diabetes.

"So, when I got this disease, it was my biggest fear. I literally prayed all the time: 'Lord, take an arm, take a leg, but don't take my sight. Please, don't take my sight.'"

But, at Christmas of 1975, having married Bob Schirlinger a year earlier, Schirlinger at 24 learned she was going blind. Laser eye surgery was still in the experimental age, but she had one eye done. She still had sight in her right eye so she continued to work.

Schirlinger, who was a secretary at Minnesota Valley Testing Lab, "literally worked until I could not see any more. The last day that I worked, I worked half a day, but I just couldn't see any longer. So I was a captain that wasn't going to give up her ship."

Staff photos by Dan Iverson

Monica Buboltz says one of her favorite things to look at are flowers. Though she is legally blind, Buboltz is still able to see colors and shapes. At left is an image of what most people would see when looking at the flowers in her backyard. At right is an example of what the same objects may look like to Buboltz.

She went into denial.

"I still did not believe it. I thought all I needed is rest. I'll get it together, gain some sight back. I'll be fine.Actually, what I was doing was re-arranging the chair from the Titanic. Finally, the ship went down. The captain went with the ship, and that's when I learned how to swim (to cope)," she said, laughing.

"I thought it would be the worst thing that could happen to me in my life, and I found out differently. It was a good lesson for me because you can survive anything. You can make it through because I found out there is a life after blindness. The things that I enjoyed then, I still enjoy today."

One of her passions always has been reading books

"I still love the feel of a book. I still love the smell of a book. I love books."

Only difference now is her reading is done by listening to recorded books on cassettes. The government provides the special equipment necessary for listening to these recorded offerings from the Library for the Blind in Faribault.

"All the books are just like going to a public library. You can get any kind of reading material you want. I was just reviewing this (book) the other day. I really didn't care for the (male) voice so this is my speeding reading (fast forwarding the tape)," she laughed.

They all agree that the best compliment they can receive is when people around them forget that they're blind.

So, if you're talking with them and you say, "it's like the blind leading the blind," or "I must be blind because I can't find it," don't give it another thought.

"I'm not offended at all. In fact, I consider it a compliment. It's when people try to correct what they think was a mistake that they dig themselves a deep hole," Childry said.

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