Finding normal: How one woman went beyond the limitations she faced
Until
she was 4 years old, Naperville resident Cheryl Price never saw her mother’s face. Born with a vision impairment, Price connected solely with her mother’s shape, voice and presence until the day she was fitted with glasses that allowed her to see everything from leaves on the tree to the smile on her mother’s face. This was the first of many obstacles Price faced in her life. Despite two handicaps, she completed three master’s degrees, pursued several successful career paths, wrote several books and took up painting. At the age of 78, she has written her memoir entitled “Through the Woods” that describes her unique determination as well as provides a glimpse into how attitudes have evolved around physical challenges.
Fitting the definition
When Price was a child starting school in the early ‘50s, there were schools for blind students but since Price had some limited vision, she didn’t qualify for those programs. At first, it seemed she was destined to struggle without help in a regular classroom.
“But Helen Keller had addressed the Lions Club International Convention in 1925 and challenged them to help,” says Price. Keller who was blind herself, delivered an inspirational address that challenged the Lions Club to become “Knights of the Blind” in the crusade against darkness. According to lionsclub.org, the Lions accepted her challenge and their work ever since has included sight programs aimed at preventable blindness. First origininating in England, sight-saving classes were organized throughout the U.S. with the Lions joining in the effort to place programs in public schools.
When she was 6, Price was driven from her home in Wheaton to Ardmore School in Villa Park for sight-saving class. “There were two students per grade level and one teacher,” recalls Price. “For the first time in my life, there were people like me in the classroom. We all had vision problems and we all supported each other.”
Price thrived in a setting where her vision limitations were understood and addressed. After being introduced to large print books, Price became an avid reader. Her parents worried that she might be straining her eyes but doctors assured them that reading served to strengthen her eyesight, not weaken it. She continued in the sight-saving classes through five grades but then was sent back to regular classrooms. Unlike today, regular classroom teachers were not responsive to her needs.
“I couldn’t read the blackboard and the teachers would erase things before I was able to get close to read them,” she recalls.
Her book chronicles the struggles with education through college. After failing miserably at her first college experience, she figured out how to move forward and earned several advanced degrees.
A secret affliction
In second grade, the sight-saving teacher wondered why Price would often ask to have things repeated. At first the teacher suspected a hearing loss but later felt there could be a different issue.
“The teacher asked my parents to have me tested for epilepsy,” says Price. The doctor confirmed the teacher’s suspicion. “At that time, epilepsy was not understood. The doctor told me not to tell anyone that I had epilepsy because they wouldn’t understand. Epilepsy was associated with mental illness, so it was best to keep it a secret. I would drop out for 20 seconds or so during a petite-mal (seizure) but was not allowed to tell anyone. I began to feel isolated,” recalls Price.
The problems increased in junior high school when she experienced a grand mal seizure. In her book, she describes the challenge of living with epilepsy without telling others for many years.
Never an excuse
“I have had a lot of support from family, friends and even strangers that have made a big difference in my life,” says Price. “All my life I wanted to feel like I fit in. I wanted to be normal like everbody else and be accepted for who I was.”
One of the first mentors was her sight-saving teacher at Ardmore School, Mrs. Mildred Toms. “She would tell us, ‘You don’t have a handicap. You have a problem and problems can be solved.’”
From that point on, Price never felt she had a handicap to use as an excuse. She only had a problem that needed solving, a resolve that she carried into many situations throughout her life.
Another encouraging moment in her life was hearing a commencement speech that went viral given at Cal Maritime by Rick Rigsby, a minister and mortivational speaker.
“I heard that speech and it still stays with me. He said that failure can be a springboard to success. He also said if you think you can’t, then you won’t. If you think you can, you will,” says Price. She quotes many others in her book who have motivated her to keep going despite setbacks.
Small victories
Price’s book recounts the challenges she faced and how she managed to cope. She still can’t read street signs. She can’t drive and she never knows when a seizure will occur. But she manages to navigate life with a “never give up optimism” through career setbacks, a broken hip, and other difficulties.
During her professional life, she was a librarian for several years with stints at Northern Illinois University, IIT in Chicago and the DuPage County Law Library in Wheaton. Price eventually switched to a carreer in journalism working as an obituary writer and relgion editor for a community newspaper group.
In retirement she has written a few childen’s books and recently completed a memoir/motivational book, “Through The Woods,” which features one of her paintings on the cover. Despite the challenges her sight continues to present, she is an avid painter in acrylics and is now ventuiring into oils, having honed her skills at the DuPage Art League.
“When I get discouraged, I do three things,” says Price. “I talk to a good friend. I give the problem a few days. Then I try again. Discouragement comes to everybody but you can’t quit. That is the message that I hope everyone carries from this book. You just can’t give up. Everyone can accomplish something if you just don’t give up.”
“Through the Woods” by Cheryl Price is available on Amazon.