Gloria has been living in a blur for more than a year.
Friends assumed she was dissing them when she wouldn’t wave back. Street signs might as well have been written in hieroglyphics. And worst of all, she couldn’t decipher the words on the blackboard in her classes at West High School.
For about a year – part of her sophomore year and half of her junior year – she had to remain in her assigned seat. She said teachers wouldn’t allow her to change to a spot closer to the board.
This week all of that will change.
Gloria will have a new pair of eyeglasses.
Last Wednesday, after Dr. Annette Butler at Europtics gave her a free eye exam, Gloria picked out a pair of black wire Jones NY frames owner Ira Haber donated. Gloria looked stylish and smart. A trio of us cooed: “You look so cute!”
Gloria was beaming. We gave Butler – a tall, soft-spoken woman with shimmering blond hair – a group hug.
But this is happenstance. What if I hadn’t been mentoring Gloria? What if I hadn’t mentioned in a recent column that she needed glasses? What if Butler hadn’t come forward to help this teenager whose sight is seriously impaired?
It makes you wonder how many other kids are in the same situation and don’t even know it. They are children who fall through the cracks in a society where so many go without health insurance and can’t afford a basic eye exam.
I should know. It wasn’t until age 16 that I could see the world clearly. My eyes were in perpetual squint mode until friends prodded me to see an eye doctor. I paid for it out of my wages earned working at The Gap.
When I first put my glasses on, I walked outside, and was shocked at how bright everything was. It helps explain why I was such a scrub at sports as a kid and why I didn’t develop good eye-hand coordination.
Gloria isn’t into sports, but after her eyeglasses broke she just went without, knowing her mother couldn’t afford to buy another pair.
Gloria’s eyesight was worse than I had imagined. Butler said she has 20/100 vision, which means that what a person with good vision can see clearly at 100 feet, Gloria can see only at 20 feet.
“She really needs glasses to see,” Butler told me.
No wonder Gloria has been struggling in some of her classes. Butler revealed something she has learned from reading optometry journals: Learning is 80 percent visual.
Without good vision a person can’t read a book, watch a documentary, or see the blackboard. Not having glasses explains why Gloria complains of headaches while reading “Beowulf,” the Old English epic poem she’s studying for her British literature class.
Gloria’s family struggles financially. Gloria wants to work, but family obligations – cleaning and caring for her chronically ill mother and caring for her sister’s children while her sister is at work – don’t allow her.
Though West High School does have a school-based clinic sponsored by Denver Health and offers referrals to students who need glasses, Gloria didn’t know about it.
“We have to do a better job of letting them know,” Patrick Sánchez, the school principal, told me.
Had he known, he would’ve helped Gloria by dipping into a special account the school has from the proceeds of Pepsi products. He said he will look into why teachers didn’t allow Gloria to move to a seat closer to the blackboard.
It might make sense to write it into school policy: children who have trouble reading the board should get a seat up front and an immediate referral to an eye doctor. What’s the point of having classes if kids are impaired from learning?
Now that Gloria will be able to see better, she won’t have to hunch over her notebook to write, a passion of hers.
She’s thankful that she’ll be able to see clearly again. It’s one of the most kind-hearted gifts a person can give. Thank you, Dr. Butler.
To see photos of Gloria’s eye exam, visit my blog: denverpostbloghouse.com/rodriguez
Cindy Rodríguez’s column appears Tuesdays and Sundays. Leave a voice message at 303-954-1211 or e-mail her at crodriguez@denverpost.com.
