I got a lesson in how to cane a piece of furniture and then he told me his story as he kept on weaving strands of cane...
"When I was fourteen, my mother and father had an antique repair business down in Bethlehem, and that's how I got into furniture repair, with my parents. I'm fifty-eight years old now."
-"And you love what you do?"
"Yes I do, and I'm totally blind. I wasn't always totally blind. I was visually impaired as a youngster and into the teens, and finally I did have a light sensitive eye problem. When I was thirty-two years old, the retina detached in my good eye and it blinded me. I had surgeries at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, and Dr. Freeman got some back for a couple of years, and then it went out again. We tried again the next year and I could see lights in the ceiling and neon in the window at night, but I couldn't see anything else."
-"How has being blind affected your work?"
"It really has not. I'm also a massage therapist besides this. A musician too. I play piano, keyboard, guitar. My father played saxophone; he was a blind saxophonist. I inherited his alto saxophone and I've been looking into teaching. I want to take a blind student on."
"When I was fourteen, my mother and father had an antique repair business down in Bethlehem, and that's how I got into furniture repair, with my parents. I'm fifty-eight years old now."
-"And you love what you do?"
"Yes I do, and I'm totally blind. I wasn't always totally blind. I was visually impaired as a youngster and into the teens, and finally I did have a light sensitive eye problem. When I was thirty-two years old, the retina detached in my good eye and it blinded me. I had surgeries at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, and Dr. Freeman got some back for a couple of years, and then it went out again. We tried again the next year and I could see lights in the ceiling and neon in the window at night, but I couldn't see anything else."
-"How has being blind affected your work?"
"It really has not. I'm also a massage therapist besides this. A musician too. I play piano, keyboard, guitar. My father played saxophone; he was a blind saxophonist. I inherited his alto saxophone and I've been looking into teaching. I want to take a blind student on."
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