PROTECTOR

JOYPEACE

It had been a year since Susan, 34, had become blind. Due to a medical misdiagnosis, she lost the sight of both her eyes. Suddenly her world changed to total darkness, which made her angry and frustrated with life. The only one that she had to keep her from giving up was her husband, Mark. Mark was an army officer and loved Susan very much. When she first lost her sight, he watched her lose all hope and determined to help his wife gain the strength and confidence she needed to become independent again. Finally Susan felt ready to return to her job, but how would she get there? Susan was horrified at the idea of taking the bus alone. “I’m blind!” she responded bitterly. Mark promised Susan that he would ride the bus with her, for as long as it took, until she felt comfortable to do it by herself. For two weeks, Mark, in his military uniform, accompanied Susan to and from work each day. He taught her how to rely on her hearing to determine where she was and how to adapt to her new environment. Finally, Susan decided that she was ready to make the trip to work by herself. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday…Each day on her own went perfectly, and Susan had never felt better. She was doing it! She was going to work all by herself. On Friday morning, Susan took the bus to work as usual. As she was paying the fare to exit the bus, the driver said, “Boy, I sure do envy you.” She was quite surprised by his remark, so asked him, “What do you mean?” The driver answered that he had noticed during the past week that a military man had especially been watching her as she got off the bus and went to her office each morning, then when he was assured that she was all right, he saluted and left. The driver thought she was “One lucky lady!” Tears of happiness poured down Susan’s cheeks. For although she couldn’t physically see him, he had gone far beyond her expectations in watching over her.