Lessons from a Blind Man, Part 1

I thought 2020 might be a good time to interview my favorite blind man and share with you some of his insights. I didn’t know I’d end up with enough for three blog posts or that I’d come away having gained far more than my efforts deserved.

That was in February. Then the pandemic reached us and I’ve been rambling on about it ever since.

Enough. Time to pull Gene’s story off the back burner so you too can benefit from his wisdom.

Gene McKenzie

Gene McKenzie says he wasn’t exactly “blind-sided” when he received the diagnosis of Macular Degeneration in 2006, given that his mother had the same thing and it’s known to run in families. He just wasn’t expecting it quite so soon. While his mother’s was diagnosed at age 85, Gene was only 68. His optometrist didn’t beat around the bush. “You have Macular Degeneration. It’s the kind we cannot treat. You will go blind.”

Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss in people over the age of 50, affecting approximately 1.4 million Canadians—more than cataracts and glaucoma combined. It’s caused by deterioration of the central portion (the macula) of the retina. The macula controls our ability to read, drive, recognize faces or colors, and see fine detail.

Gene recalls attending a concert a couple of years after his diagnosis. When they came out, it was raining. As they headed home, Gene could not see well enough to drive with confidence. After that, he limited his driving to daytime. In 2015, Gene and his wife Alice were on their way to church one Sunday with Gene at the wheel. While stopped at a traffic light, they watched a cyclist run the red light.

“I told Alice that if I’d been coming through the other way, I’d never have seen him,” Gene says. He decided he’d rather stop driving for good than risk such a disaster, and voluntarily quit.

As a retired pastor and rancher, Gene enjoyed woodworking, turning a lathe, working with a band saw and chisel to produce wooden toys and other gifts. When that hobby became too difficult and dangerous, Gene was forced to surrender it.

“I’ve always loved to read and study,” he says. “For a long time, I could enjoy books on Kindle because I could enlarge the font as much as needed. Eventually, though, I couldn’t read it no matter how big I made it.”

Now legally blind, Gene has learned to appreciate audiobooks. He feels tremendously grateful for the help of the CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind.) They send people in pairs from Winnipeg to Gene’s home in Portage, one sighted person to drive and one blind person to teach. Gene has learned how to walk with a white cane, maximize existing technology, and modify his routines. “They’ve been so excellent and encouraging,” Gene says. “CNIB has its own audiobook library, available at no cost.”

One of the best books Gene and Alice have read is Lessons I’ve Learned in the Dark by Jennifer Rothschild. They loaned this one to me and I devoured it in two days. Rothschild went blind in her teens and today is an inspiring author, speaker, and musician. “Some things that God allows to come into our lives are genuinely hard to be thankful for,” she says. “Only an open hand receives the blessings that accompany difficult gifts, and sometimes it’s only in a package wrapped in heartache that we receive the fullness of God’s grace.”

It’s a lesson Gene appears to have learned well. Friends tell him they marvel at how joyful he remains despite his loss. “There are so many promises in the Word of God I can draw on,” Gene says. “Before we were ever formed in our mother’s womb, he knew us. My blindness did not catch God by surprise. I continue to have a ministry with others, and others have been a great encouragement and support to me.”

Next week I’ll tell you what Gene misses most.