Sparks in Darkness

By Irene Sever

Sparks in Darkness is composed of four stories, three of which are interconnected stories that deal with living with blindness. Blindness is addressed in terms of the challenges it presents and the ways in which its limitations are overcome. For example, a blind couple raises their little girl successfully, despite their double handicap. In spite of dire predictions, with the help of relatives and friends all the characters manage to surmount their difficulties. These stories may perhaps shed light on the plight of blind people in the seeing world.

The last story, The Haven, is based on the idea of the Ospedale della Piet institution of seventeenth-century Venice. It attempts to underline the role of loving mothers in the healthy development of abandoned and rejected children. In The Haven, the roles played by the mothers and the fathers, such as Dr. Haven and Mike, together create a wonderful environment for unwanted children

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Feb 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543744347

Irene Sever

Irene Sever was born in Paris, France, in 1932. She earned advanced degrees from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa, and the Sorbonne in Paris. She is a retired professor from the University of Haifa. A married mother of three, she speaks several languages, including Hebrew, English, French, German, and several more.

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Sparks

in

DARKNESS

IRENE SEVER

52416.jpg

Copyright © 2018 by Irene Sever.

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5437-4433-0

      Softcover      978-1-5437-4432-3

      eBook         978-1-5437-4434-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

www.partridgepublishing.com/singapore

CONTENTS

Foreword

Blind Man

•   Jonny

•   Joyce

•   Joyce and Jonny

•   Amy

•   Eileen and Chris

Poverty To Riches

•   Teresa

•   Maureen

•   Robert

•   Nick and Greg

Ann And Andy

•   Ann and the Pomfreys

•   Ann

•   Ann and Andy

The Haven

•   The Haven

•   Mike

•   Mothers

•   First Babies

•   Finale

Foreword

Blindness and visual impairment when it happens to people either suddenly or gradually is a cruel experience. Everything one could do, liked to do or enjoy doing becomes an insurmountable obstacle. The most basic activities: pouring coffee, going over a highway, finding the right room where doors are numbered, becomes very difficult, or impossible. If you ask somebody help to find the right door, the answer is very often

Why don’t you look? It’s written up there

The stories tried to show that new abilities can develop and make life livable and tolerable. People learn new skills and adapt to the limitations. The book tried to show that nothing is impossible and ingenuity can solve most problems.

I wish to express my gratitude to Ms. Liz (Elizabeth) Yodim who turned the original manuscript into a readable text.

Haifa, 20018

Blind Man

Jonny

Jonathan Jones was the second son of a factory foreman who had worked his way up from messenger boy to supervisor of fifty men. He was a self-taught man who was interested in everything to do with mechanical things and was pleased to see that his eldest son had similar interests. They would spend hours arguing over the relative merits of some new gadget and would make Jonny’s mother wish they would go fishing or talk about something less boring. Jonny was very interested in books and studying, brought excellent reports from school, and was a first rate athlete, first as a sprinter and then as high jumper. Later, when he started growing very fast, he was discovered by the basketball coach and started to train seriously. He soon became the star player and in his last two years in school he captained his team at the district and eventually at the national championships.

In his last year at school, his father became sick with a lung ailment that seemed to afflict many of the men who had worked in the same workshop. After a second death, an investigation was carried out and it was found that the material the men had been handling for years contained asbestos and they had been inhaling asbestos dust for years. Jonny’s father was retired on half pension and the family’s finances slumped. Jonny’s mother continued to work as a clerk in a store and, even though he was in his last year of school, Jonny took a job delivering groceries for a neighborhood grocer.

One day Jonny was on his bike waiting for the traffic lights to change, when he realized that he could not see the colors of the lights; nor could he see the car next to him. He remembered that recently his famous ability to score from the middle of the court had deteriorated and he was mostly assisting and letting others score. He carefully pushed his bike along the sidewalk and made his delivery and then on the way home he called to make an appointment with an eye specialist, who told him to come over right away. Jonny parked his bike and went to the clinic. The examination seemed to take forever and Jonny was exhausted from all the lights that were being shone into his eyes. In the end, the doctor looked him up and down and asked whether he could take bad news like a man. Jonny told him to go ahead and the doctor explained to him he was at this point visually impaired, that he should neither drive a car nor ride a bike, and that he should plan a future that included a very distinct possibility that he would lose his sight in a few years. Jonny said that he was good at drawing and wanted to study architecture, but the doctor thought that he should forget about that; he needed to study something that a blind man could do.

Jonny walked home, refraining from crying only because a tall broad shouldered athletic guy crying like a baby was too embarrassing a spectacle. His mother was at home and he explained what the doctor had said. She tried to sound optimistic and suggested they consult another doctor, which he did, but the verdict was the same: he would be blind in a few years’ time.

Jonny came home from the second consultation in utter despair. He went to his room and closed the door, refusing to eat, and did not speak to anyone, not even his mother. His mind seemed to have gone completely blank, as if the knowledge that he was facing all his plans for the future falling into ruins and that a life of darkness was all he could look forward to was too big a challenge for him. At the end of the two days of being in shock, Jonny shook off his stupor to face the world again and decided to look at the thing realistically. What kind of work could a blind person do?

He went to the university councilor to ask his advice, telling him he still could count on a few years of partial vision. The councilor suggested he look over the curriculum of social work or personnel management. He said he knew of several blind people who had found employment in these fields. Jonny looked it over and decided that social work was something he could probably manage. He asked the councilor what the chances were that he would get a scholarship and a room on campus and whether he could be allowed to take a large number of courses while his sight was still functioning, so that when his eyes failed him he would have less to do and could concentrate on writing papers and assignments, which he could do with people reading the required material to him. The councilor was very impressed by this pragmatic approach to misfortune and promised to try to help in every way. He was as good as his word. Jonny was given a room in the student hostel and was allowed to take as many courses as he could squeeze into a week and to record the lectures on tape instead of taking notes.

While waiting for the semester to start he decided to try learning to touch type. He went to see his former headmaster and explained his situation to him and asked to be allowed to use the school’s computers, which were not used during the summer holidays, in order to practice with the software used in school. The headmaster, who remembered him mainly as a star basketball player, was appalled by what he heard and was eager to help. He said Jonny could take one of the computers home and bring it back in time for the beginning of the school year. Jonny was grateful and having lugged the bulky machine home, he sat down to practice. He had, like all his school mates, taken courses in basic computer literacy and knew how to type more or less by touch, but found that he was picking out the keys by looking at the keyboard more often than not. Now, he had to make sure that he did not use his eyes but relied entirely on his fingers finding the correct key. It was hard, and seemed at times completely hopeless, but he kept at it in a sort of frenzy hour after hour. His mother looked at him, but refrained from doing more than giving him with regular meals and inventing errands for him to do for her in order to let him go out walking at least once a day. She never found out if he was aware of her tricks, but at her request he would obediently leave his frantic pounding on the keyboard and carry an ostensibly too-heavy bag from the grocer or do some other such invented task.

Jonny found it difficult trying to learn to touch type on his own, and so he took a typing course and at the same time a course in Braille. Having acquired these skills and fully determined to succeed, Jonny started his new life as a visually impaired person.

Jonny’s first weeks at the university were hectic and confused. He could still see enough to navigate from his room to the classrooms but not enough to read the numbers on the doors. His schedule was very full and he had to run from one class to another all day. If he asked where a certain class was, someone would say something like It’s written on the door; why don’t you look, but others, seeing his white mobility cane, realized that he was blind and would show him the way. Soon the word spread that they had a blind student in their midst and that he was very good at explaining things that seemed impossible to understand and at clarifying complicated topics. He was also found to be a funny teller of stories and jokes and could be counted on to help those in trouble. He finished his first year with an average of 95 and from then on he became the oracle everybody went to for help, making good use of his grasp of essentials. In return, many read aloud to him. He had always been good in math and after a few lessons with the teacher in statistics he went and found an easily understandable INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICS and asked somebody to read it to him and stopped trying to grasp what the teacher was talking about. This particular teacher was a genius in his field but was totally unable to teach beginners. He would start promisingly with the course material, but quickly forget who his audience was and depart on a flight into the unknown spheres of advanced statistical theory, which was what really interested him, leaving the class totally confused. Jonny tried to help and practically coached the entire class using the easier information that he had found in the introductory book. The result was that at the final exam there were only three who failed and one who had scored 100! The usual results were a failure rate of 70%, with the rest barely scraping a pass. The professor was baffled and thought his assistant had made a mistake, but he had to admit there was none. The professor asked who the genius was who had scored 100% and was told it was the blind student. Jonny was called in and he frantically tried to find a way of explaining the matter without insulting the teacher. When he walked into the office, he was asked in a friendly way to sit down and explain what had happened during the exam. Should I fail the entire class for copying from you? the professor asked. Jonny was appalled at the accusation and told things as they were, saying that he had used a simple textbook and had helped the others to use it too, explaining what remained unclear. The professor asked for the title of the simple book, thanked Jonny for making his work easier, and congratulated him on his perfect score. Jonny sighed in relief.

Jonny’s second year was as frantic as the first, but now he knew his way around the university. His score of 95% at the end of the year gave him another scholarship, but he had to face the fact that his eyes were finished: he could no longer see more than vague shapes and relied entirely on his hearing. He managed to finish with a score of 92% and again was awarded a scholarship. He had much more free time as he only had to present three seminars and get the required practical experience and so he tried to think what he was going to do with his life.

His father’s health went from bad to worse, and after three years, when Jonny was in his third year at college, he died. His was the seventh death among the men in that workshop and the survivors and the widows hired an attorney and filed a class action against the company for knowingly letting people continue to work with materials known to be dangerous. The case dragged on for two years, but in the end the company was forced to pay compensation. Jonny’s mother received a considerable sum and when the lawyer pointed out to the jury that Jonny was blind, he too was awarded a substantial sum to enable him to finish his studies.

Jonny’s older brother, Henry, had left home and followed his interest in all things mechanical. He was hired by a garage in the north of the country. His boss liked the hardworking young man. He was well mannered and polite to the customers and, when the boss realized how talented he was with his hands, he sent him to study after work hours for the exams needed to manage a garage. Henry did very well and was greatly appreciated by his boss and even more so by his daughter, whom he married after a short courtship.

Jonny’s mother was left alone and continued to work as a clerk. One day, she went to a hardware store, because the handle of her pantry door had come off in her hand and she could not open it at all. The store was run by an elderly man and his son. It was empty and the owner started a conversation. Helen told him about her son up north who had just made her a grandmother and her younger son who was blind and could only rarely come home, as he was more confident walking his usual path from his room to classes and back. So, who is going to fix your handle? Helen admitted that she would have to try to fix it herself, but the store owner introduced himself as Jack and offered to come and do the job. He told his son to close the shop at the end of the day and went to get a selection of door handles and his toolbox. He fixed the door expertly, saw that a shelf was falling down and fixed that too, and, when Helen asked what she owed him, he said it was part of the service. Helen offered him coffee and cake and they spent a pleasant hour getting acquainted. He had been a widower for many years and, while his sons had tried some matchmaking, he had refused all their candidates and remained single. He was training his son to take over the store. Helen spoke for the first time with a stranger about her husband’s long decline and death and found it surprisingly easy to talk with Jack. They soon came to an understanding and Jonny gave his mother away to Jack to love and cherish while Henry’s baby was laughing happily at all the attention he was getting. Helen was happy and Jack and Jonny became fast friends.

Jonny graduated in social work and was called in to speak to the Dean who told him that he had made the Dean’s List and, if he wished to go for a master’s degree, a scholarship would be available. Jonny thought it over and decided he would accept the chance to pursue further studies, but he preferred to take Education as his subject. He proposed as the subject of his research for his thesis the assimilation of blind students in regular schools. The idea was discussed by the School of Education and Social Work and was found to have merit and the two Deans gave their blessing. Jonny was given letters from the university introducing him to the principals of schools that accepted blind students and he set out to find out what difficulties were encountered by both the students and teachers and to write a report on his findings. Jonny began to visit schools and talk with all those concerned and accumulated a mass of information that had to be analyzed. It took him the better part of a year to create a readable report that was succinct enough for busy bureaucrats to read. He also added the raw data in a sizable appendix for the benefit of those who might be genuinely interested in the problem. By the time Jonny finished his monumental work, he was completely blind and had to use the good services of his classmates, who read aloud to him in exchange for which he typed their papers and theses.

With his compensation money in the bank, Jonny started to look for a place to live, now that his university days were over. His thesis had made the rounds of the School of Education and had eventually come to the attention of the Ministry of Education. There, it was decided to appoint him as a consultant for the problems of blind pupils. The salary was small, but the position enabled him to enter schools and try to help students and headmasters coping with the difficulties of their blind students. In between, he looked for a place to live. After many fruitless visits to agents, somebody mentioned a ramshackle cottage at the end of a quiet lane that might be cheap enough. Jack went with Jonny to see the place. The structure of cottage was sound, but the electric wiring was substandard, the plumbing totally rusted, and the floor and staircase rotten and broken, but the price was still too high. Then, Jack climbed on the roof and found a number of broken tiles and a chimney! As there was no visible fireplace, this seemed rather puzzling. This made it possible to haggle further and get the price down to Jonny’s budget. The agent, who had had the cottage on his books for years, was finally persuaded to agree. Jack told he would donate the materials needed for the renovation and would supervise the work if Jonny could produce people to do it. Jonny appealed to his friends and they promised to spend part of the summer vacation renovating his home. It was hard work but Jack was a very good teacher and gave them material that was easy to work with. Helen contributed part of her compensation money and Jonny was able to install a modern kitchen. Friends looked for hidden treasures in their attics and came up with three big armchairs and a still serviceable sofa. The flea market yielded the frame of a coffee table, which, with a glass top, was turned into an elegant addition to the living room. Secondhand shops provided a bed and a dining table with chairs and Jonny’s room at home was emptied of his desk and bookshelves. Helen contributed curtains and the whole house was whitewashed inside and out. The door and window frames were painted a nice blue and it was soon impossible to recognize the pretty house as the decrepit cottage it had been. Jonny gave his helpers a celebratory party and they all celebrated so hard that the next day the neighbor sent a strong reprimand to the new lodger, telling him in no uncertain terms those parties with raucous laughter until the small hours were not tolerated in this neighborhood. Jonny decided it was best to pacify the lady, and went to the nearby bakery shop and asked if they happened to know what Mrs. Grump’s favorite pastries were. The baker said he rather thought that she loved Danish pastries and Jonny bought six of the best and went to present himself at her door. He was told to come in as the door was open. He told her that yesterday’s celebration had been in honor of the end of the renovation and would not happen again. He asked if she felt like having a cup of tea with the Danish pastries that he had brought as a peace offering. Mrs. Grump said he would have to make it himself as she could move only with great difficulty and that the tea and the mugs were in the kitchen. Jonny said that, even though he was blind, he could put the kettle on to boil and set out the mugs, if she would be kind enough to pour the boiling water, as that was hard for him to do. They had tea and talked for half an hour while his hostess never stopped complaining for a single moment. However, this was the beginning of a friendship that endured as long as the old lady lived and would have a profound impact on the lives of many people.

Jonny was walking along the narrow sidewalk in the direction of his home at the end of the lane. He was tall and wore a well-cut coat. His wide brimmed hat was fashionable and he was swinging his cane across his path while striding confidently along a familiar stretch of road. As he neared his house, he became aware of an unpleasant smell, which he recognized after a few seconds as that of burning. He hurried to open his front door and walked straight to the kitchen. A short time before his electric kettle had burned out with a puff of acrid smoke and this smell was similar. The kitchen, however, seemed all right. Jonny went out again and followed the smell to the neighboring house where old Mrs. Grump lived. She was a widow, and though she constantly complained about everything in a strident voice, Jonny pitied her and went over to her house a couple of times a week to keep her company. She had trouble with her legs, being grossly obese (one more cause for complaint), and moved mostly between her bed and armchair in front of the fireplace. Consequently, Jonny was as familiar with her household as he was with his own.

Jonny walked carefully into the cluttered living room. Mrs. Grump’s caretaker, though aware that her neighbor was blind, kept leaving all sorts of bulky objects in the middle of the room, so he had grown accustomed to avoiding obstacles when he visited. He first went to check that she had not tried to burn something while sitting in her chair, and then went into the bedroom, but found it empty as well. The smell was strong, but did not seem to be coming from the kitchen and so he walked back into the living room. Then, he thought he heard a whimper from the left side of the room. Carefully feeling his way with his rubber ended mobility cane, he encountered something soft and hurried to call for help. Within minutes, the narrow lane was the scene of frantic activity. An ambulance and a police car filled the lane and an efficient looking paramedic shouted immediately: Do not touch her! They gave orders to pull the lamp cord out of the socket before touching her and this left Jonny confused, and he tried to keep out of the way. He settled in the great armchair. After a while the commotion seemed to quiet down. The ambulance drove away with screaming sirens and Jonny remained with the feeling that there was somebody left in the room. A quiet voice addressed him: You probably saved the old lady’s life. Am I right in thinking that you are blind, even though you find your way around here extraordinarily well? Would you be willing to help us in our investigation? My name is Captain Hart. Jonny smiled: A blind man finding clues? You know I have to touch things to ‘see’ them. But first can you tell me what happened to poor Mrs. Grump? We found her in a puddle of water clutching a shattered lamp with the cord still in the socket and a pair of tongs. She was probably mildly electrocuted. However, there’s no sign of anything that could have been the source of the water. No overturned pail or pan. You know this place well. Tell me if anything is missing or was not here before. The police officer saw with interest how the blind man expertly moved his hands over the objects in the room. As Jonny came to the fireplace he exclaimed: The picture! Do you see here a heavy silver frame with the photograph of a young smiling man? The captain said there was no such frame, and saw this as evidence that Jonny really knew the room very well. Jonny continued to search the room methodically. He handed the officer a heavy wooden box saying: Mrs. Grump kept all the postcards her son sent her in here. Perhaps you will find something of interest there. The captain opened the box saying: There’s a folded letter in here. That’s very odd. In the two years I have known Mrs. Grump, he has not written a single letter. Could you read it? said Jonny.

Mr. Hart stepped closer