by Tammy Robbins
In late October 2005, my boss sent me an article from our local newspaper about a man who had lost his sight in a motorcycle accident in 1996.
The article focused on the fact that even though he lost his sight, he wanted to go back to work as a mechanic because he felt that he was still perfectly capable of doing that job as a blind person.
After reading the article, I was very impressed with the fact that this man had not given up on himself and was willing to fight for what he wanted.
Having been blind since birth myself, I always admired others who did not give up when they lost their sight. I found myself really wanting to talk with this man and see if there was anything I could do to help him with his goal.
Unfortunately for me, finding him turned out to be a bit more difficult than I thought it would be. At the time he did not have a phone of his own, and there was no easy way to get his address. However, I was not one to give up.
With the help of my 12-year-old son and some resourceful friends, we were finally able to connect after nine long months. When we talked on the phone for the first time, we introduced ourselves. I was very nervous.
After he said, “Hi, I’m Bob,” my first question was, “How’s life in the witness protection program?” After he giggled, we went on with our chat and eventually planned for him to come spend the weekend so we could get to meet in person. At the time, this was the best thing to do as we needed help with transportation and the busses didn’t go to the town where he lived.
When he finally got to my house, it was like we’d known each other forever. We talked all night and into the following morning, and we only went to sleep because we were absolutely exhausted. As the weekend came to a close, we tried to figure out how we could date like normal people, but with transportation and other issues, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
At that point, I suggested that maybe we should give living together a try, and Bob agreed with me. We discussed our decision with my son, and he thought it was the right thing to do. So Bob moved in, and we were married less than one year later.
We got married in a rented hall in a little town in Connecticut with our faithful guide dogs by our sides, and we were surrounded by our family and friends. After we said our vows, I sang “The Rose” and everyone cried, including me.
Some people thought we were crazy, and maybe we were, but we celebrated our 19th year together on July first of this year and we’re still very happy and very much in love.
I guess you can never know where love will come from. I certainly never expected to find my soulmate in a newspaper article.