One Day with Grandpa
by Jon Carnes
(Minneapolis, MN, USA)
One day, my grandfather simply couldn’t recognize my face anymore.
This was when I was far younger than I am now, back in the early 1990s.
He’s dead now, but I remember coming into his house without announcing myself, and waving.
He seemed to be staring right through me, and though he was aware of a presence in front of him, was not clear as to what it actually was.
He actually seemed frightened, and I was frightened too.
Once I announced myself, and asked him what was wrong, he seemed to know who I was.
It wasn’t until several months later that I learned he was losing his vision.
It turned out that he was suffering from what is commonly referred to as Wet Macular Degeneration, a condition with no known remedies at the time.
He never went blind as a result of it, but until his death in 1998, he would have to turn to the side to look at peoples faces.
