Macular Degeneration

by Steven Johnston
(Tipton, IA, USA)

My grandfather was diagnosed with Macular Degeneration before he passed away in 2000.


It was very difficult for him to deal with, as he was forced to stop driving.


The only way he said he could see at all was if he looked out of the corner of his eye.


I remember hearing a story about how one night he was driving home from dinner in a rural area, and all of a sudden he felt a large thud hit the car.


He had no idea what it was, and the next day he went back there and saw that he had hit a deer that night.


This is what made him stop driving all together. He said that it was lucky it was a deer and not a person.


It was very difficult watching him deal with being “clinically blind”.


He was no longer able to come and visit us, which was very difficult on me because of how close I was to him.