NEW CASTLE —
Talk about an ice breaker.
That happened as Bud Green attended a dinner with his wife about Christmastime last year. It was an occasion for members of the Lawrence County Association for the Blind and the New Castle Lions Club.
Green, who had lost most of his vision for more than a year, was among the company of both sighted and non-sighted people. As he located a table, he attempted to make introductions with those around him. In the process of trying to shake Mark Pappas’ hand, elbows collided and Green also knocked over a glass of cold, cold water.
It’s just another episode in which, Pappas, who has been blind for 11 years, categorizes as AIB — Adventures In Blindness.
Not knowing that Green is a Presbyterian minister, Pappas started a conversation.
“I don’t know it you’re a person of faith or not,” he said to Green.
Later, Pappas concluded that, “It wasn’t a coincidence we wound up sitting together. Then the entertainment started and we had to shut up.”
Never mind the age difference. Green is 52. Pappas is 35. Both live in Neshannock Township. An instant connection formed.
Now both have become advocates of sorts to show that non-sighted people can adjust to situations, that constant developments in technology can make life easier and stereotypes about blindness need to be dispelled.
LOSING SIGHT
Not long after graduating from Penn State in 1998 with an architectural engineering degree, Pappas started getting blurry vision in his left eye. At that time, he was working in Washington, D.C.
He dismissed the situation as probably needing new contact lenses.
In early 1999, after “miserably failing” visual field tests, Pappas then had an MRI, which showed a non-cancerous tumor the size of a golf ball in the pituitary gland or the base of the brain. The tumor put pressure on his optic nerve. He learned a pituitary adenoma is very rare and only half the tumor could be removed through surgery.
Pointing toward a scar on his head, Pappas explained a craniotomy for a second tumor was performed.
“I still had my sight.”
But in the way destiny can be unkind, a few days later, he developed meningitis.
“The lights went out and that was that,” he said.
Pappas was 24.
Green underwent a liver transplant in December 2007. Five days later, he was diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy.
His wife, Jennifer, noted the change in Green’s insulin requirement affected the small vessels in his eye.
There was some laser surgery but nothing could prevent the gradual deterioration to 20/400 or what he now calls being “severely visually impaired.”
For Green, there are occasional shadows.
With Pappas, it is total blackness.
COPING
After hearing the grim diagnosis in February 1999, Pappas was a patient at the National Rehabilitative Hospital, which teaches people to deal with their blindness.
“I was blessed I have a supportive family,” he said. “They are my rock to lean on.”
Minimal sight is still a new concept to Green.
However, he has accepted the prognosis.
“It won’t get better,” he smiled. “I have to make the most of it and I am grateful for some light perception.”
Misconceptions about blindness are always surfacing.
“Sometimes people stare and maybe they have never seen a white cane,” Pappas said. “People try to be nice and grab me by my arm. It’s better if I take the sighted person’s arm.”
Pappas also enrolled in a course to improve mobility training, cane travel and navigating intersections.
And he does his own laundry and makes beds.
Upon hearing that statement, Jennifer told her husband, “See what you can do.”
Pappas jokes that he went from being an architectural engineer to a domestic engineer.
“Losing sight is not the end of the world. Blindness does not mean one is paralyzed. You need to think differently and see things in a different light.”
He also spoke to students at George Washington Intermediate Elementary School during Disability Awareness Week.
In an instance of irony, Pappas said when he was the age of those students, he feared he would lose his sight.
Through time and learning, Green’s mantra is now “embrace your blindness.”
MOVING ON
Not being able to see has not stopped Pappas.
He loved to play golf when he had vision. Now he swings those irons once again. He relearned the sport from former teacher and coach, Amos Mazzant.
Pappas also bowls with a league for blind persons and took computer classes. He is on the board of directors for the Disabilities Options Network and Keystone Blind Association, and with about eight others, formed an under 50s group.
“I keep very busy.”
Because Pappas is unable to make judgments about people at face value, he said, “I don’t know about clothes or hair so I just accept the persons for the way they are.”
Green added, “All visual assumptions about people are gone when you lose your sight. If I could go back, I wouldn’t change anything.”
The men, who said they are both strong in their Christianity, doubt they would have met one another under other circumstances.
“God wanted this for me,” Green said. “Visual blindness opens the world to a great deal of insight. Some people want to sit in their armchairs and sob.”
With Pappas’ help, not only did he reach new understandings but developed a new, close friendship.
“He’s come a long way,” Pappas said of his friend.
TECHNOLOGY
Sitting at a dining room table in Green’s house, a voice briefly interrupts the conversation.
“It’s 11 o’clock,” announced the talking clock.
It’s among several gadgets and other tools known as assistive technology.
For distance, Green has glasses with a telescope and received a prostethic left eye.
As far as phones, Pappas can place various programs on his cell phone thanks to Mobile Speak.
He also has programs to use with his computer including ways to download music for a “blind person’s iPod.”
And a clothes scanner detects he is wearing a dark purple shirt and light brown shorts.
“Being visually impaired is easier than it used to be,” Green said. “Technology makes blindness easier.”
One of his favorite buddies is the Amigo, a portable closed-circuit device as well as a full-sized one he received from a respected community member who lost his sight and died earlier this year. A wide angle lens allows for words to be projected onto the screen.
Green’s Mobile Reader is used to read books, memos and even currency and an apparatus on his cell phone lets him know who is calling.
Technology has also made Braille a little obsolete, Pappas said, adding that he does play solitaire every day with Braille playing cards.
Picking up a Braille labeler, he called it “an amazing little toy.”
There are other helpful instruments including talking scales and digital book players — the reading material is downloaded from a computer.
“I listen to books every morning as I exercise,” Pappas said.
He reached for his digital recorder in which he has installed five folders including ones for phone numbers, appointments and general notes, and Green demonstrated a PENFriend used to record and label items — even a can of soup.
Both emphasized that services are available to assist the visually impaired in receiving the proper technology for them.
“Technically speaking, 11 years ago none of this existed,” Pappas said.
Pappas believes there is also a possibility he could one day see again because of constant advancements such as stem cell research.
“The future looks bright for me personally. I won’t leave the world as a blind person.”
Support is also not far away.
The local association for the blind can check for any resources that may be needed, and offers transportation and a monthly luncheon for the visually impaired, Green said.
It was also through the organization that the two men met.
There are different friends for different seasons and different friends for different reasons. Green and Pappas made that discovery.
The sight may be gone, but not the spirit.
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Related Photos
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Bud Green show Mark Pappas some features about his digital book player for the visually impaired. The two became friends after losing their sight and often share their successes and struggles. Lugene Hudson
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Bud Green uses a device called a PENFriend, which is voice activated and helps him prepare files. Lugene Hudson
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