Icon “C”

By Susan

Elliot was on his way home. It would have been an understatement to say that he was in a good mood. He was in high spirits. He could have embraced the whole world. Within the next three weeks his most ardent desire would come true at last.

Today was Friday afternoon, and was a warm and sunny day. Actually it was the longest day in the year because it was summer solstice. He would take his girlfriend out to a dinner tonight to the Atlantic Point, the most elegant restaurant in town. They would sit outside and enjoy the magnificent view over the ocean and the sun plunging in the water as a big red ball. It would be time to let her into a secret that he had been carrying around with him for about a week. And it would be time to carry out a plan that he had borne in mind for months. This was a secret, which he could never tell her though it was mostly the reason for his effusive joy. She must never find out the truth.

Susan’s story - part 4

by Susan

Whether to have a child or not was a difficult decision for Susan. On the one hand, she was conscious of the dangers involved, particularly the potential worsening of her eyesight.

On the other, she (and Charles) had long planned to have three children. This was an ideal that had sustained them both throughout their marriage and Susan's previous experience of childbirth was so positive that, deep down, she knew she wanted another baby.

Nevertheless, before she committed herself, she decided to seek further expert advice. Susan spoke to her local doctor and through him obtained an appointment with a consultant at London's major eye hospital.

In many ways, the tests proved as inconclusive as before. Yes, the specialist said, there appeared to be some connection between pregnancy, its immediate aftermath and the worsening in Susan's eyesight. The information received from her optician suggested this worsening lay in the range of about minus 5 dioptres over each three-year period during and after childbirth.

Susan’s story - part 3

Susan’s story - part 3

by Susan

To read the previous part click here.

Susan entered into her 30s with an extraordinary sense of optimism. She was the mother of a beautiful daughter, Emma.

She and Charles were happy together and loved each other, or at least that's how it seemed to her. Susan felt fit and healthy. Thanks to near-daily exercise with a personal trainer, plus her own gym workouts, her figure was svelte and trim.

Gradually, since she and Charles moved into the family home a few years earlier, she started making a few friends in the surrounding area. Her circle of friends was expanding and she was invited round for morning teas, took part as a volunteer in various toddler and then nursery groups. Everyone said that she was extremely good with children, and not just her own.

The only minor cloud on the horizon was Charles' totally unreasonable refusal to accept that his wife was severely short-sighted. Her last prescription, when she turned 30, was R-11.25, L-11.75, which meant she could not function effectively without either glasses or contact lenses.
But when she tried to talk to Charles about it, Susan felt as if she had hit a brick wall. He would point-blank ignore any remark she made about her eyesight. If he caught her wearing her glasses for any reason, Charles would either walk out of the room or throw a temper tantrum - and then sulk for the rest of the day.

Susan’s story - part 2

This is my next instalment. After packing the older kids off to school and my young one to nursery, I had a few hours of free time on my hands. Somehow, I felt an intense urge to write. It's almost as if by telling this story, part of me is becoming liberated.
Readers of this instalment can judge its merits. I'm off to pick up the youngest. Take care.

To read the first part: click here

Susan’s story - part 2

by Susan

The alarm went off at 7 am, but Susan had been awake for hours already. This was the most important day of her life and she'd had a restless night, waking and then falling back into a restless slumber. 
But the clock's buzzing did mean she had to get up. Susan was getting married today and there were still lots of things to do before the church ceremony started.
Wearily, she reached out to the bedside table and picked up her glasses. Slipping them on, she slid out of bed and reached for her dressing gown.
The gown didn't fit her very well any more - and it was one of those now-thoroughly unfashionable bobbly things, in faded pink. That was one of the drawbacks of sleeping at home on the night before the wedding: the clothes left behind after years of living away were unlikely to win many catwalk awards. But it would do for today and in any event, within a few hours Susan would be dressed up to the nines.

Susan’s story - part 1

By Susan
(saved and sent by Jules)

She was 15 when Susan first noticed her eyesight was becoming a little weak. At first it was fairly minor: a slight blurriness when she looked at things a little distance away, like a blackboard, or at the cinema, or watching television.
It was easy to compensate for. You just screw your eyes up a little, or move a bit closer to the screen, or sit nearer to the TV.
When it started, Susan just thought it was a bit of a nuisance. Few people at school noticed anyway.
And her mum only made a few comments: "Susan, what's the matter with you, get your head away from the telly, other people are trying to watch it."

But then things became worse. Susan noticed that if she was waiting for a bus she couldn't see the number until it came quite close. If she arranged to meet someone in town on Saturday, she wouldn't see them until they called out to her. Going into a café on her own became a bit of a problem, especially when lights were dim, making it hard to recognise people.