Someone Else's Eyes

For most of my life I have grown up being some else's eyes. I have dug more holes, fixed more leaks, and launched more boats than most girls my age, or any age at that. I was that little girl with white cowboy boots (with fringe) and wild curly red hair that followed her daddy's footsteps so close he stepped on me more times than not.

Most of you know my father is legally blind. This is the only way I have ever known him. Throughout life he has taught me many things about the workings of houses and boats. He even buys me power tools for little "surprises". I loved more than anything sitting on the stool in his work shop while he was sawing away at his latest project. At night, when I was supposed to be asleep, I could still hear his saw out in the shop as he finished up for the night. I would have done anything to have been able to stay out there with him.

Back then, he didn't need my help as much as he does now. The older we get the more he needs from me. For years now, working on projects with my dad has become more stressful. Reason being is because we are exactly a like and we both have the one and only right answer for the problem we are trying to solve.

What I don't understand is that year after year, my father can't do all the things he could the year before. He won't always be able to repair furniture, fix a broken cabinet or even hammer a nail, but this doesn't stop him from wanting to. It actually makes him want it more. For years I thought I was helping him by taking the hammer and saying, "I'll hit this one in for you, Dad," but it only reminded him that he couldn't. Tonight I learned something about him.

We found our patio at the new house was under about two inches of standing water after a hard rain. If it had gone a few more inches it would have been in the house and ruined the new floors. Dad and I worked for about an hour and were able to find the drain, uncover it and allow the water to flow out naturally. This time, I decided not to try and move my father out of the way and solve this myself. I decided to stop being a pushover and actually learn something from him. He may not be able to see very well, but he knows what he should see and what should happen. It may take him longer to unclog a drain, but he can still do it.

What I learned was that he still knows exactly what he is doing even if it doesn’t look like he does, and I still don’t know more than he does. Who would have thought? It has been a while since we have been able to work together on something without getting upset with each other. This time, we solved the problem, I learned about water drainage and we laughed our tails off at the guy who thought he had installed a good drainage system. Victory.

Even though I feel sometimes my daddy has taught me everything he knows, he hasn’t. I learn more from him by being the one who gets under his feet. After all these years I still know what he is thinking and feeling by just watching him. Most may think my daddy’ eyes are no good anymore because he can’t see out of them, but I can and the world looks pretty good from here.

Hug him….