Over the past couple of years, my mother has complained about how her vision was giving her problems. However, she never did anything about it until recently. When I spoke to her a few weeks ago, I was telling her about how I had to drive my grandmother back from a party that my uncle had thrown at his house. It was a dinner party, so by the time that we left, it was dark outside. My grandmother had made no excuses when she told me quite frankly that driving at night made her nervous. As I was relaying this to my mother, she told me that her vision had deteriorated to the point where she actually had to call my younger brother to come and pick her up from work because she was too nervous to drive home.
As you get older, many people experience problems with their vision. However, this is not always the case. When I was in college and was studying for my thesis, I began to have trouble seeing the blackboard. It eventually got to the point where I really could not decipher what the professor had written on the board, so as a result, I would continually have to ask one of my classmates for their notes so that I could copy down what had been written. I knew that I was going to have to do something eventually. I also began to notice that when I was driving (especially at night), I was having a great deal of difficulty making out the street names on the signs. Not being able to see the blackboard was one thing, but it was quite another to not be able to see clearly while driving, so I made an appointment to have my eyes checked. Sure enough, I needed glasses.
With my mother’s case, my father had just bought her a new car, and her job required her to close up the store sometimes late at night. In addition to that, she also tutors children on occasion in the evenings, so being able to see clearly was especially important for her in her daily life. Just two days before her birthday, she had the day off from work and decided to go with my brother to the optometrist. The result? She had the beginnings of a cataract in one eye, and her vision required her to get glasses. The day before her birthday, she picked up her new glasses. While she was greatly disappointed at having to wear glasses, she was increasingly grateful to be able to see clearly again.
Too often, automotive accidents occur because of driver error. Either the driver is unable to see clearly or is distracted by something else that they are doing in the vehicle such as eating, talking on the cell phone and/or texting. Knowing that you need to get glasses or at least go in for a checkup is not only the responsible thing to do, but it helps keep you and other drivers/pedestrians out there safe. The last thing that you want to have happen is you accidentally hit someone simply because you couldn’t see or weren’t paying attention.