The restaurant where we would be dining was a short walk from Ben’s building. As we walked, he pointed out some of the art galleries and as we walked past one of them, he asked my opinion of the painting on display. I told him that I liked it and after discussing it we went on to the restaurant. The office had called ahead for a reservation, and we were seated immediately. I thought Ben was looking at me rather strangely and I called him on this. ‘I was just wondering how it was possible that you can see so well wearing my Nana’s old glasses?” Ben asked. “What do you mean by “your Nana’s old glasses”?” I queried. “The minute I laid eyes on you there was something about you that looked familiar. The more I watched you the more I realized that it was the glasses you are wearing. If they are not my Nana’s old glasses, they are an identical pair, and I find it almost impossible to believe that you would have found an exact same frame and that you required identical lenses to the ones my grandmother needed. I noticed that you see quite well wearing them, so you obviously need them.” Ben told me. I wasn’t sure if I should come clean and tell Ben that I had bought 5 pairs at a thrift store, but I decided I would first play with him a little. After all, if by chance they happened to really be his grandmothers old glasses maybe I could find out the prescription of the lenses from him. “They are my glasses. I am very nearsighted, and I can’t see a thing without them.” I replied. “I can tell that you need them, but that frame has not been made since the 1980’s. There is something funny going on here and I would love for you to tell me the truth Niccole.” Ben said. “How could I possibly have gotten a pair of your grandmother’s glasses?” I asked. “Nana died when I was 8. I was born in 1997, so that was in 2005. Nana was only 44 when she died. She got pregnant with my mom when she was 17, and that was in 1978. Then mom had me when she was 19. Mom is now 43, just a year younger than Nana when she died and my father drowned in a swimming accident 3 years ago, so mom was cleaning out the house as she wanted to move to a smaller apartment. I guess it was a couple of years ago that mom took all of nana’s old glasses, along with a bunch of nana’s other stuff and donated them somewhere. The only way you could have gotten them is if you bought them from a thrift store somewhere.” Ben replied. “Well, if you are correct and if I bought them there is nothing you could do about it. Anyway, I need them so badly I could never give them up.” I responded. “Niccole, there is absolutely no question of asking you to give them up. Nana was extremely nearsighted, and she passed her myopia along to my mom, who passed it to me. When I take out my contact lenses, I can’t see a thing. I would never even ask you to take your glasses off so I could examine them, which I would love to do someday.” Ben said. “I might as well admit it then. I bought 5 pairs of glasses at a thrift store about 2 years ago for $10.00. Children’s aid no longer pays for my glasses, so I have been wearing each of the pairs until I need the next pair and then I change to them.” I told him. “How old were you when you got your first glasses?” Ben asked. “I was 8. How old were you?” I queried. “I have you beat. I was only 4. But mom was 3 or 4 when she got her first pair. Now she has to wear glasses with myodisc lenses. I suppose I will likely have to wear myodiscs when I am her age.” Ben told me. “Don’t your eyes stop getting worse as you get older? Do you know how strong these old glasses of your nana’s are?” I asked. “I am not sure, as everyone’s eyes are different. I think Mom still needs an increase once in a while. I believe she told me that Nana’s eyes got worse when she was pregnant with mom, but she waited until mom was a year old before she got those glasses. Actually, she got 2 pairs of glasses on a 2 for 1 sale, and she kept those glasses for special occasions. I can’t be sure, but I think mom told me that Nana’s glasses were around -17D, maybe as much as -17.50D. I can ask her, and I will either call you if you give me your number or I can tell you the next time I see you.” Ben replied. “Is there going to be a next time Ben?” I asked. “As long as I am working for the insurance company…… – Oh, you were wondering if I was going to ask you out. I would take you out in a heartbeat Niccole, but I am not allowed to date a client. I would get fired.” Ben answered. “I don’t mind if we were just friends Ben. I think you are very nice.” I spoke. “I am only going to be working for the firm for a few more months Niccole. Then I will have completed my articling and will be called to the bar. I will likely go to work for a law firm, and then I would be able to date you if you would be willing to date me.” Ben replied. “ Well, we can be friends until then. And if you were to ask me out, I would certainly accept.” I responded. I gave Ben Mildred’s phone number, and he gave me his cell number. He promised to call me if his mom knew the prescription of the glasses I was wearing and I told him I was going to get my own cell phone and he could then call me anytime he wanted to. He walked me to the subway station, and I was prepared to go down the steps when he said he would like to give me a hug. Along with a wonderful hug came a light kiss, and I tingled inside. I was excited about everything all the way back to Mildred’s. I was going to start paying $500.00 a month to Mildred after the school year ended, so that left me another $500.00, as well as whatever I could earn working. I could now buy an inexpensive cell phone and a plan with some internet access on it. Bailey and I both knew how to use the internet, but Mildred had never paid for internet access on her cable plan. I wondered if we could possibly add the internet to her plan, but that could wait. Another thing I wanted was an eye exam, but that could also wait. I needed to keep my expenses to a minimum until I actually had a full time job. Until then I needed to also concentrate on my studies so I could get good grades on my final exams in a couple of weeks. Ben called me on Thursday evening. His mom was surprised that anyone could have worn her mom’s old glasses, but she remembered that her mom had told her that the silver glasses had a prescription of -10.50D, and that she had actually worn those glasses when her prescription was around -10D. She was also fairly sure that her mom had ended up with a prescription of around -17.50D. This would have been the prescription in the last 2 pairs of glasses that her mom had, and when she died, she had worn that prescription for over 25 years, although she had had another 2 or 3 pairs in that prescription during that time. Now I knew that I was wearing glasses with a prescription of -17.50D. I thanked Ben and told him I was sorry that I had not gotten my own cell phone yet, but I would call him with the number as soon as I could. I graduated with decent marks. The fast food place I worked at was going to give me more hours, but only 20 to 25 hours a week. I applied for and was hired at a clothing store, but both jobs wanted to dictate the hours they wanted me to work so I had to do a lot of juggling I managed to work most evenings at the fast food job, and I opened the clothing store in the morning. I was getting between 40 and 45 hours a week, but it was really wearing me out. I had no time to sign up for further training, and my cell plan barely had enough data to allow me to do online schooling. But then I was fortunate. I had job searched at almost all of the places near Mildred’s house and finally I got a call back from an optometrist’s office. I had confined my search to places that I could walk to, and this office was at the outer range of a comfortable walk. But they wanted me for 40 hours a week, and the starting pay was a bit higher than the other jobs were paying me. Also, when I went in for my interview, I discovered that an eye exam and new glasses would be included. I didn’t know if I was ready for the eye exam, because I wasn’t sure that my eyes had adapted to the glasses I was wearing, but a free exam and free glasses sounded really good to me. I was hired, and I gave my notice at my other 2 jobs. My boss seemed to be a really nice person. The optician’s who worked in his office were extremely helpful in training me, and before long I felt very comfortable answering the phones and greeting clients. I had learned how to use the machine that they used to check the prescriptions of customer’s glasses and part of my job became checking the prescription that was in the patients existing glasses. Then I got to a point where I was also checking the glasses that came from the lab to see if they had gotten the prescription correct. I even caught one job where the lab had gotten the angle of astigmatism wrong on both lenses. They had used the number for the right lens on the left and vice versa. I couldn’t check my own glasses though because I couldn’t see well enough without them, but that changed one day when a new pair for a patient that had a prescription of -17.75D in one eye and -16.00D in the other came in. There was about -1.50D of astigmatism in the -16.00D eye so that eye wasn’t perfect but the -17.75D eye allowed me to check my own glasses. Ben’s mother had been correct when she thought that her mother’s glasses were -17.50D for both eyes, with no astigmatism.
https://vision-and-spex.com/part-3-a-surprise-family-t2316.html