When I was in my late 40’s I was a bit of a dreamer and would occasionally buy a lottery ticket so that I could fantasize over what I would do if I won the big jackpot. The trouble with that is that in the long run I usually discovered that I had just thrown away a dollar – actually two bucks if I bought the extra. But for two dollars I could spend a few days dreaming of what I would do with the money, so I suppose it was worth it. The biggest problem with being such a sporadic lottery player was that I never got into the routine of checking my tickets after the draw, and the tickets would pile up in my wallet until I was tired of sitting on a wallet that was full of useless paper and I would then go online to check the numbers of the past draws just before I threw out all those wasted dollars. Five tickets down, and I hadn’t even won a free ticket. I took the 6th ticket, checked to make sure the date of the draw was the same as the ticket, and I started to read off the numbers. The first number was a 4, the same as the one on my ticket. Then 15 followed the 4 and that is what my ticket said. My heart started pounding as the next number on my ticket, a 27 matched the number shown on the computer. I stared in disbelief as I read off the remaining 3 numbers. They all matched, and when I checked the bonus number my bonus number matched the one on the computer screen. I had a winner. I was now a multi-millionaire. I collected my winnings and because I was living in Canada, they were not taxable. I had to take a sizeable discount to get the money in a lump sum instead of the monthly payments, but I felt the money was better in my hands so that I could invest it properly. I purchased shares in Apple, Google, Microsoft, Walmart, Costco, and a number of other solid companies. I did not put all my eggs in one basket, nor did I invest in only one sector of the economy. I hoped I had made the right moves, because my new plan was going to need a lot of money in the future. The dreams I had of the ways I wanted to spend my money had gone out the window when I realized I actually had enough money to fulfil them. What good would it have done me to buy a new Ferrari or a huge motorhome? These dreams were the dreams that should be forever unattainable and in reality the frivolous purchases would never have given me much satisfaction. I knew that my money could be spent in a much better way. I have always considered myself a little weird. Most guys are fixated on a particular aspect of a woman. Some people like to see a pretty face. Others like big breasts or nice trim rear ends. Some guys like their ladies to be a little plump, while still others are fixated on ladies of a particular ethnicity. But I am from a select group, a group of men who are fascinated by girls who wear glasses. Some of those men like any girls who wear glasses. Others like girls who wear plus glasses, while still others like only minus glasses wearing girls. But I am fascinated by the one I am still searching for; the rarest women of all. My favorite ladies are the select few who need very strong minus glasses. This group, along with the ones who wear strong plus glasses are almost impossible to find out in the general public. For more than the 50 years before this story begins most of these elusive ladies have worn contact lenses in public, starting in the later part of the 1950’s and continuing into the 1970’s when the soft contacts came on the market. After the soft lenses came out, and more of these highly myopic ladies started wearing them any of the ladies with the higher degrees of myopia became practically impossible to find. I had met one young lady when I was in my late 30’s. She was around 27 or 28 at the time and I had first spotted her shopping in one of the current fad of big box stores. I had no idea of what her circumstances were. I just knew that I wanted to meet her as she wore what I considered a perfect prescription. She was one of the earlier wearers of superlenti lenses and I was fascinated by the appearance of those lenses. But of course, just wanting to meet someone doesn’t always lead to fulfillment of your wishes and at the time this was proven to be the case. I wasted a lot of time hanging around the big box store where I had first spotted her without being fortunate enough to ever run into her again. At the time I was running a trucking company for the owner. He had started off working as a single truck owner for a fairly large manufacturing company and as they grew larger and larger he had managed to expand his fleet in a rather haphazard way, buying trucks and trailers to fill the needs of the company. Finally he had realized that he was in deeper than he wanted to be, and actually was reaching a point where he was over his head with all the necessary paperwork and fine details. He wanted nothing more than to just keep driving his one big fancy truck, and his only option was to hire a manager or he would possibly end up losing the company. I wasn’t a trucker, but I had trained as an accountant and it didn’t take me long before I had the balance sheet back on the positive side. Some of the drivers rebelled against my new rules and a bit of housecleaning was necessary. Big Mike wasn’t too happy to have me fire some of his good friends, but I made sure that I brought him in for any of the discussions I had with his buddies before they were let go. Don’t get me wrong. I gave these guys every opportunity to fit in with the new rules but there were 3 or 4 of them that just wouldn’t change their habits and either they went, or I went and Mike could see the fruits of my labor every time he looked at his bank account so my job was safe. Truth be told I would have fired Mike if I could have, but at least with him there was only one driver to clean up the paperwork after instead of 5. I interviewed a driver named Rick Pierce one sunny fall day a couple of years after I had stopped searching for the lady with the superlenti lensed glasses. He seemed as if he would be a pretty good fit for the company. He was in his early 30’s and had driven transport since he was 18, with an impeccable record. He had been married for 5 years, but they had no children. His wife was employed at a day care center, although she had never trained as a teacher or a nurse and was working mostly as a babysitter. I had asked Rick if they had any children and he replied that they had tried, but his wife was unable to get pregnant. Rick turned out to be one of my best employee’s. But on the night of the first company Christmas party that Rick and his wife attended I got the biggest shock of my life when I was introduced to his wife Bonnie. She was wearing contact lenses, but I recognized her immediately as the young lady that I had spotted wearing superlenti glasses. I now really wanted to get to know Bonnie better, but I also realized that I had to be very careful about how I handled things. I didn’t want to show Rick that I was interested in Bonnie sexually, although I would have been if she had not been married. And I didn’t want to have it look as if I was partial to Rick in front of the other drivers. This was going to involve a real balancing act on my part. I managed to keep my attraction to Bonnie hidden from everyone for the next 10 years. Once in a while, if Bonnie had a few days off, Rick would ask if he could take Bonnie with him on a trip. Our company policy allowed for that, as long as the driver had first asked for permission. It was always a pleasure when Rick showed up with Bonnie before he started his run. Whenever she rode with Rick, Bonnie wore her glasses for the entire time and actually I had noticed that Bonnie was wearing glasses more and more as she got older. She did confide in me one time when we were talking prior to their trip that she really had wanted to have children and had been very disappointed that she was unable to get pregnant. Now, 10 years later she was 38 and had accepted that the chance of having a child was now in her past. A couple more years slid by before I won the lottery. I kept working, and Mike’s trucks stayed busy rolling up and down the highways. Mike had suggested that I should buy him out with my winnings, but I had no interest in doing that. It should not have come as a big surprise to me when Mike came to me one day about a year later and announced that he had been offered a buyout that seemed to be quite reasonable from a much larger trucking company. Of course he wanted my advice and when I heard the figures I told him to go ahead and jump at the chance. I wasn’t interested in sticking around after the sale, but I had to stay long enough for the transition to take place. It was during this time that I saw a picture in the local newspaper showing a young lady that had been left an orphan at the age of 9 after the death of her parents in an automobile accident. I was immediately drawn to the picture. She looked to be a rather thin and undernourished child, although she had a fairly pretty face. But it was the glasses she wore that captivated me. They looked to be so strong that her face, through the lenses of her glasses, appeared to be reduced to about half the width it really was. This was one very nearsighted child. Rick was out on a trip, and I called Bonnie to see if she might be interested in either adopting a child, or at the very least becoming a foster parent to a young lady. She was interested, especially after I offered to pay all the expenses of the child. She had to discuss it with Rick first of course, and she did that the next time he called her. He agreed that it might be nice to have a child around, so Bonnie and I spoke to the children’s aid case worker who was handling the young lady’s placement. Bonnie managed to express their interest in either becoming a foster parent to Shannon, or else adopting her before anyone else stepped up as apparently there were no other family members that could take over the care of Shannon. It took a little time for all this to happen and while this was going on I was winding down my involvement in Big Mike’s company. Mike had been hoping that he could stay with the company as an owner operator, but he was told that they were not really interested in having any owner operators working for them, and finally he decided that he had enough money that he should just sell his truck and retire. We were both going to be retired before we had our 50th birthdays. Rick stayed working for the new company and they let him keep his seniority. I asked Bonnie to quit her job at the daycare so that she could be home with Shannon even though Shannon would be in school all day 5 days a week. Bonnie didn’t want to do this as she felt that they needed the money however I convinced her to take on a couple of houses to clean during the week while Shannon was in school. That’s how Bonnie happened to be cleaning my house and Big Mike’s house, and we were paying her the same take home pay she had been receiving when she was working at the day care. Of course I was paying her the bulk of her wages, but I didn’t mind. It took a while before Shannon felt she fitted in with Bonnie and Rick. It did help that Bonnie was just a little more nearsighted than Shannon because Shannon had never been exposed to anyone who had as poor vision without glasses as she had. I made sure that I, as her Uncle Dave, took Shannon to see a specialist in low vision, and Shannon ended up with a prescription for new glasses that were a little stronger than her old -20D ones. I paid out a pretty fair chunk of change for Shannon’s new glasses, but she looked darling wearing them so it was well worth the money I spent. While Rick, Bonnie and I were dealing with the people at the children’s aid office one of the ladies had remarked to me that children with obvious difficulties were harder to find homes for than those kids that appeared “normal”. I realized immediately that the obvious difficulty that she had been talking about was Shannon’s severe myopia and I mentioned to her that Shannon’s poor eyesight was not a problem for Rick or Bonnie and I even suggested that if any other children came along that were quite nearsighted I might be able to convince Bonnie and Rick to take another child or two under their wings. Bonnie happened to be there when I suggested this and she did not object, so I took that to mean that it would be possible for us to take in another very nearsighted child. Although Bonnie did mention to me that I had better be the one paying the expenses for any of these children and she was mollified when I told her I would be. With that thought in mind I decided that a larger house for Rick and Bonnie might be in their future. I mentioned this to them, and while they first objected to the expense they soon changed their tune when they discovered that I would pay any difference above the selling price of their old home. I even told them that I would pay off the mortgage on their existing house and that they would be mortgage free on the new house as long as I had a permanent home there. Of course they agreed to that. In our area it was almost impossible to find a 5 or 6 bedroom home. An 8 bedroom house was just out of the question. I went to see an architect and had him draw up plans for a home with 4 good sized bedroom on the second floor. Three of the bedrooms could easily be divided down the middle and both rooms would be large enough to hold a single bed and a desk with individual closets in each room. That would give us accommodation for 6 children. The master bedroom was a decent size and had a walk in closet and a bathroom. I had the other bathroom plumbed so that it could be divided into two bathrooms at a later date so we could have a boy’s bathroom and a girl’s bathroom if necessary. The main floor had the living quarters and the large basement was left unfinished. The main floor was about 4 ft. above ground, which allowed for good sized windows in the basement. The architect showed the basement divided into another 8 small bedrooms and the plumbing was roughed in for another 2 bathrooms. We did not submit these plans to the building department of the city though as I knew they would never accept the idea that this house could eventually hold 12 bedrooms. Shannon had gradually gotten over the death of her parents and she now felt that she was accepted into the family life that Rick and Bonnie were giving her. She was a bright kid and her marks in school placed her at the top of her class. Like any other young girl who needed strong glasses she really didn’t like wearing them, but since Shannon had come to live with them Bonnie had been wearing her glasses full time and had not bothered with contact lenses. Shannon did ask Bonnie if she could get contacts and Bonnie suggested that she should ask me if I would pay for them. Shannon was just shy of her 11th birthday and I suggested that I would buy her contacts for her 16th birthday if she still wanted them. I had not realized that the children’s aid network would reach out to other offices in the area and while we were building the new house I had already received 3 requests to place a child in our care. The first child was a little boy of about 5 and I was not unhappy that we could not accommodate him. He was quite farsighted and his glasses were pretty strong. I would not have had a chance to refuse him if the house had been completed, and I wouldn’t have done that because it would have looked a little suspicious. The other 2 requests were for a brother and sister who they were trying to place together. The house was pretty close to being move in ready, and since the girl more than met my criteria I convinced Rick, Bonnie and Shannon that we could place a bunk bed in Shannon’s room for Heather and Jacob could use the spare bedroom at my apartment until the house was ready. We talked this over with the Children’s Aid office that was looking to place the kids and they accepted our offer. Jacob was almost 7 and Heather had just turned 5 when they came to live with Rick and Bonnie. Shannon was quite excited to have a little sister and she was wonderful in making Heather feel accepted. I had noticed that Heather seemed to have a wandering eye so I made an appointment with a behavioral ophthalmologist for her. Her prescription was already a rather strong -12D and after a thorough eye exam it was discovered that her right eye was wandering because her right lens was too weak and her left eye was doing all of the work. She ended up with a new prescription of -15.25 x -0.50 x 180 and -13.00D. I was told to keep a close eye on her and if her right eye still seemed to wander then she was going to have to patch her left eye to attempt to strengthen the right eye muscles. Jacob also had his eyes checked at the same time, but he did not need glasses yet. I was going to give up my apartment and move into the house with Rick, Bonnie and the kids. After the permit of occupancy was issued I was then going to start working on the finishing of the basement. Jacob had gotten quite accustomed to me, and after we had moved into the new house he became my shadow as I worked on the basement. He actually was quite a decent helper and soon learned which tool I was asking him to get for me. After Jacob and I had the walls roughed in I had an electrician wire the rooms and then I brought in a drywall crew to do their work. After they were finished I painted and then laid the ceramic tile floor before I hung the doors and trimmed everything. When we were finished we had 8 small, but functional rooms for more children. I had created 2 large communal bathrooms that each had 2 toilets and 2 showers, and there was also a bit of a recreational area down there where the kids could watch TV. I asked Shannon and Heather if they each wanted to have their own bedroom but they seemed to be very content sharing a room. While we were working downstairs Jacob had asked me if he would have one of those bedrooms but I told him that it would be his choice. I did tell him that he could keep his upstairs room as long as he was willing to share with another boy and he told me he would like to make that decision after he met the other boy and could see if he liked him. I was pretty sure that once the people in charge of the foster care system realized that we could accept another 9 children it wouldn’t be long before the house was full of kids. And I knew that I would not be able to pick and choose to take only nearsighted kids as I had done with Heather and Shannon. The next young lady that came along who met our criteria for having vision problems was Allison. Allie had been born a few weeks premature to a mother that was a drug addict. She was quite nearsighted, to the tune of around -14D at the age of 6 and they were not sure if she was just severely nearsighted or if she had ROP – which stands for retinopathy of prematurity. When Allie moved in Jacob suggested that Allie could have his room and he would move down to one of the smaller rooms in the basement and the girls could all have their own bathroom. I had no choice but to accept Jacob’s offer because Allie needed to be with the other girls. Kevin, the 5 year old severely farsighted boy that I had originally turned down, came back into the system and now we had no excuse not to accept him. I ended up being pleased that we had because he was a sweetheart of a kid. His vision problems were because he had been born with cataracts and he was too young to have lens implants. But they were hoping that when he grew a little older they would still be able to do the implants. We placed Kevin into his own downstairs room and he and Jacob had the whole floor to themselves for the time being. Shannon asked if she could have her own room, so she also moved downstairs and Heather and Allie were sharing the room that Shannon and Heather had shared. It seemed that in no time all the rooms filled up. In the eyes of the foster care system any child that wore glasses at a young age were harder to place than those kids that didn’t need them and since we had told them that we would consider any child that was visually impaired the whole area was making their children who wore glasses available for us. We did take one young girl of 6 years of age because her 4 year old sister had a prescription of very close to -10D, and we put Bethany and Candice in the other upstairs room together. When the rooms were all filled we had 8 girls and 4 boys and only Bethany and Jacob didn’t wear glasses. Of the remaining 10 there were 2 young ladies that had a lower degree of myopia than I would have preferred, but we couldn’t be that choosy and we had accepted them without reservations. Since Sheila already had a -3D prescription at age 4 and the other girl, Karen, had a prescription of -1.75D at age 5 I was pretty sure their prescriptions would increase significantly by the time they were in their early teens. Kevin and Gail both needed plus prescriptions. Kevin’s was quite high because of his cataracts, but Gail was only a +4D, and she had a bit of strabismus, which required patching of her eyes daily. Heather was also patching her good eye to see if her weaker eye could be strengthened, so it was nice that they had each other as company for the patching. All of the kids loved living with us. They each had a few chores to do around the house and they had to keep their own rooms clean. This didn’t seem to be a problem, and most of the time the house was full of joy and laughter. So far none of the kids had been adopted, nor had there been any interest shown in any of them. I suppose Jacob and Bethany would likely have been adopted, but since they were well established with us and were quite happy here there was no pressure on the foster cares system to push adoption on them. And I suppose the reason the foster care system was so happy was that it wasn’t costing them any of their funding to keep these 12 kids with us, as I was funding everything from my own money. Of course, I was claiming them all as dependents so I was not paying any taxes on my investment income but it was worth it to me. I enjoyed having my 8 myopes around. They ranged in prescription from Karen’s-1.75D all the way up to Shannon’s more than -20D and because there were so many other girls wearing glasses around Shannon had pretty well stopped asking if she could get contacts. I would have loved to put an addition on to the house, but I was pretty sure the building inspector would not allow that. We just had to be happy with our even dozen for now. Specs4ever June 2016