Creative Writing: The Battleship Sikorra

Seeing into the future, knowing the harshness of the disease and that wheelchairs would be a part of our life, we realized we’d have to find a house with bedrooms downstairs--or at least enough space downstairs for the family to sleep. By the grace of God, we sold our house quickly and bought another a few miles away. We originally called the “new” house the “Battleship Sikorra” as it was somewhat dilapidated and painted an inglorious grey. The carpets crumbled when we walked on them. But it had “a lot of potential.” (That’s real estate talk for a fixer-upper.) After the move, John began second grade at the local public school a couple blocks away, and Ben seized command and control of the local kindergarten. We tried to keep our heads held high while our hearts sank. John’s Catholic school was three blocks in the opposite direction of the new public school. We quickly established some deep friendships with families who shared our faith. As if that wasn’t enough, another huge blessing entered our life at this time, and remained throughout the boys’ school years. Her name was Linda Jacobson. Linda was the Vision Specialist with the school district. Since Ben wasn’t showing signs of deteriorating eyesight at this time, she just met with him to make his acquaintance. As the years passed, she’d meet with both boys regularly, weekly. Separately, she’d take them to a vacant school room and teach them braille. …show more content…
Most had never had a blind student. They turned to Linda when trying to figure out how to instruct the boys to read or write. And she worked closely with the aids to teach them how to guide. When we felt lost and didn’t even know how to fight for our kids, or what to fight for, she’d wordlessly step in and just make the right thing happen. We didn’t know we’d need mobility specialists or special machines to enlarge words or... She’d lead the way when called upon, then quietly fade into the background when the storms