“Mildred, you have to quit listening to Reverend Simms and take Rachel to an eye doctor. There is no way that his hocus pocus sideshow of praying for her eyes to get better will work.” I told my sister. “But Heather, I can’t just take Rachel to an eye doctor before the prayers have had a chance to work. The Reverend will be angry with me. He says that we must give prayers a chance to do their work because once a person starts wearing glasses their eyes just get worse and worse.” Mildred replied. “I am telling you Mildred that Rachel is getting more nearsighted every day. Why today when I drove down the street, she couldn’t even see me when I parked the car and got out and walked right up to her. She only recognized me when I spoke to her.” I said. “The Reverend said it would take time.” Mildred said, her mind seemingly made up. I knew there was no sense pressing the issue any further with my sister. Her faith in that damned charlatan Simms was unshakable. And what was worse was that I honestly thought that my 11-year-old niece Rachel actually was getting more nearsighted daily. The only thing she could see clearly enough to do was to read, and as a result she was spending all of her time with a book in front of her nose. The only person I knew that had worse uncorrected eyesight than Rachel was Lucy Simms. Yes, Lucy, the Reverend Simms daughter was terribly nearsighted and none of the good Reverend’s prayers had helped her a bit. She really needed to wear glasses, but her father refused to allow this. I teach at the junior high school down the street, and as a result I often spot the young children that are beginning to experience vision problems long before their parents are aware of a problem. I suppose that my own experiences with myopia from a young age have helped me this way, and while I hate to admit it, I like to see young children developing myopia. Mildred was not incorrect when she said that once a person starts wearing glasses their glasses get stronger and stronger. That is what happened to me, and I am pretty helpless without the -16.50D glasses I wear in order to be able to see the world in anything but a blur of colors. Wearing glasses has never been a problem for me. Every morning I reach for my glasses before I even open my eyes. Actually, my glasses are my eyes because without them I cannot function. I got my first pair of glasses when I was around the same age as Rachel is now. My prescription climbed to right about the point it is by the time I was 18, and I had a little increase when I was 20, but since then my prescription has remained pretty much the same for the past 20 years. I always thought that it was unfair that I had to wear glasses while my younger sister was able to go through life without wearing them, but other than the few minor problems such as glasses fogging up when you come inside on a cold winters day, rain drops getting on the lenses when it rains, glasses slipping down your nose when you are doing the gardening on a warm summer day and other minor inconveniences, wearing glasses is a small price for me to pay in order to be able to see clearly. If I did not have my glasses I could not drive, I probably would not be able to teach. Going to a movie would pretty much be out of the equation and I certainly would not be able to watch my son John play baseball or basketball. The way Mildred was talking it was going to be the end of the world for Rachel if she had to get glasses, but in reality, a pair of glasses for Rachel would open up the whole world to her. Lucy Simms was in my home room class at the beginning of the year. It was terribly obvious that she was quite shortsighted and there was a note in her file that her grade 6 teacher had advised her parents on 2 different occasions during the previous year that Lucy needed to see an eye doctor. This did not suit the right Reverend Simms, and when I also sent a note home with Lucy I made a point to mention that if Lucy continued coming to school without having seen an eye doctor the school would have the child’s vision tested and the Simms would be charged for the doctor’s visit. I don’t know if we really had the right to do that or not, but I had stopped going to church soon after Reverend Simms took over the parish. As I mentioned, I have no problem wearing glasses, but that man has something against people who wear glasses because the first time I met him he made some very disparaging comments about my thick glasses and about our daughter’s both wearing glasses. My husband Rob was with me that day, and I thought Rob was going to punch him right in the face. Fortunately, I managed to drag Rob out of there before he got in trouble and our family has not been back to church since Anyway, right after I sent the note home threatening to have Lucy Simms’s eyes checked at his expense Reverend Simms pulled his daughter out of school. His wife is a mousy little woman who wouldn’t say a bad word if her mouth was full of it and she took over the job of home-schooling Lucy. But I have seen Lucy around town a few times since and she is always walking with her head down. When she does look up she has a vacant unfocused look to her eyes that indicates to me that her vision is extremely poor and the real reason she looks down at the ground right in front of her is that she can’t see any further. I teach grade 7 through grade 8 history and geography and I quite enjoy my job. My students are right at the age where a few of them are becoming a little nearsighted and it is fun for me to see if I can spot the boys, or girls that will be returning to school after the holidays sporting a new pair of glasses. I am not often wrong, and if the kid I have had my eyes on doesn’t come back after the holidays wearing glasses I will watch them for a few days and then will send a note home to their parents suggesting an eye exam is in order. That usually does it – except if the kid’s parents are members of the Reverend’s church. I sure would like to know what he has against glasses. I am getting fed up with my sister Mildred’s unwillingness to have Rachel’s eyes tested. I have half a mind to take Rachel to my eye doctor on my own. From my own experience, getting my first pair of glasses was what opened the door to the whole world for me. If I had not worn my glasses I would never have been able to get my driver’s license. Without me having a driver’s license I would not have been able to take my teacher’s course because at the time I had to drive to the different schools where I did my practice teaching. I am pretty sure if I had Rachel’s eyesight tested and if I ordered her a pair of glasses, once she put them on, she would refuse to go without them. But if I did that Mildred would likely quit talking to me. Maybe that wouldn’t be all bad because it seems that all we do these days is to argue and that does not make for very good family dynamics. I am sort of feeling at my wits ends, and I need to get some professional advice so it might be time to bring the principal of her school up to date about this problem. I might be able to do that tomorrow. Grace and I have to pick Alice up at Rachel’s school so we can go to have our semiannual eye exam. Grace is 12 and is in grade 7 at the school I teach at and Alice is 10 and in grade 5 at the school that Rachel goes to. Alice and Grace both got their glasses at the same time. Grace was 6 and in grade 1 and Alice was 4, still going to the babysitter every day. I had noticed that Alice was bringing her coloring very close to her face, and she was sitting almost on top of the television set, so it was not a big surprise to me that Ali was shortsighted. But I had hoped that Grace would not need glasses quite yet. When she had her eyes tested it was discovered that Ali was very shortsighted. Her first glasses needed to be -4.50D, and when it was Grace’s turn to have her eyes checked it was discovered that she also needed glasses. Her -2.50D prescription was insignificant compared to her sister’s prescription. Only 6 months later Ali was squinting to see things she should have easily been able to see and so I took both girls back to have their eyes checked again. Ali needed a sizeable bump to -6.00D and Grace had another -1.00D added to her prescription. This started a routine of eye exams every 6 months, and over the last 6 years my girls have added around -3D or so to their prescriptions, The most recent eye exam saw Ali reaching a prescription of -9.00D. Grace also needed an increase and her new glasses were going to be -7.00D. But the big surprise was the fact that I needed an increase as well. My doctor told me that he had been considering a slight increase for me the last time, but when he tested me with slightly stronger lenses, I was unable to read as well as I should have. He backed off and left my prescription where it was. Now I had reached a point where my distance vision was only 20/40, and I was right at the point where I should not be driving without getting new glasses. I could likely get away with an increase of -1.50, but he really wanted to give me -2.00D, which would bring my new glasses right to -18.50D. And what really surprised me was that at age 42, if I got new glasses, I would need to get them as bifocals. That didn’t sound good. A new prescription of OD -18.50 x -1.50 x 90 and OS – 18.50 x -2.00 x 85 with a +2.00D add. Bifocals at only age 42; wow, that made me sound old. I had a choice between crown glass and plastic. The optician told me that crown glass could be made a bit thinner than the plastic I had been using for years, but even if it was thinner the glass lenses were much heavier and could be broken easier. My old -16.50D glasses had been made as biconcave plastic for years - except for one pair of myodiscs that had the flat fronts. I liked the myodiscs, and still wore them for special occasions, but the thicker full field biconcave lenses were what I liked best because they gave me better peripheral vision. If I wanted the same plastic biconcave lenses there was only one choice I could make. My new glasses were going to have biconcave lenses with a circle in them for the reading portion. That would work for school and if I didn’t like the bifocal part, I could always use one of my old pairs of glasses to read with at home. The girl’s glasses were going to take about 2 weeks to come in. They had no idea how long it would take for mine though. I had chosen a new frame, and although they wanted me to get a plastic frame I had gone for a wire frame. My lenses were apparently going to look to be very thick – at least that is what they warned me. I didn’t care. I had been known as the girl with the thick glasses ever since I was in high school. And I didn’t think Rob would mind. He had always told me that my glasses were what attracted him to me in the first place. He was just as happy that John didn’t wear glasses, but he certainly didn’t seem to mind that we routinely had to spend our money frequently on new, updated eyewear for Alice and Grace. I had spoken to Peter Newman, the principal at Alice’s school about Rachel’s poor eyesight and he had agreed to discuss this with her teacher. I wasn’t prepared to get an angry call from Mildred that evening asking me what business the school had in telling her that this was the second note they had sent to her and if she did not get her daughters vision problems looked after they would notify child services. Milly was really upset, and it took me quite a while to calm her down. I finally told her that the teacher really had Rachel’s best interests at heart, but it did also look bad for the teacher when a student was getting a failing grade because of something as simple to fix as poor eyesight. “What can I do? George doesn’t have any extra money right now to have Rachel’s eyes tested.” Milly said. “If you want to bring her over, I have lots of old glasses around from my girls. We could see if there is a pair that would help Rachel. If there is, she could wear them until you and George can get Rachel proper glasses.” I replied. Milly agreed to bring Rachel over after supper. They showed up and I already had my 2 girls dig out all their old pairs of glasses. I was pretty sure that Rachel had tried on Grace and Alice’s glasses before, and since Rachel had a bit smaller face than Grace, we tried a few of Alice’s old pairs first. When Rachel tried Alice’s old -6.00D glasses she told us that she could see really well with them. Grace was still wearing her old -6.50D glasses, but I asked her to let Rachel try them on. Grace could see even better with them. I knew that Ali had a pair that was -7.00D, so we dug them out and tried them on Rachel. Rachel said they seemed all right, but the nice thing about them was that they fit her face perfectly. Milly and Rachel left that night with Rachel wearing Alice’s old -7.00D glasses. I wondered when they went out the door how long it would be before Rachel came back for an even stronger pair of Alice’s glasses. Rachel’s father George was an Ok guy and was not a bad husband, but he spent a little too much time in the local watering hole to suit me. Milly called me crying a couple of days later. Apparently Reverend Simms had seen Rachel wearing glasses when she walked by the church on her way home. He had blasted Milly for not trusting in the Lord’s ability to cure these afflictions. I told Milly to not be so darned foolish. If Reverend Simms was willing to let his own daughter walk around half blind waiting for the Lord to decide to help her there was no sense having Rachel stand in line. I told her that myopia was not something that prayer and healing hands could help. Milly sort of agreed that probably I was correct, and when I asked her if Rachel would be willing to go without glasses while she waited for God to help her Milly told me that there was no way anyone could get Rachel to take Alice’s old glasses off her face. I sort of wanted to tell Milly that it looked like I was right, but I wisely kept my mouth shut. The optician called to tell me that all three pairs of glasses had come in. I had not noticed that my vision had been getting weaker, but the minute I put my new glasses on everything looked clearer than it had been for ages. I didn’t really like the bifocal portion as my eyes seemed to stray into it every time I looked down and the girl at the optical store told me that I was going to have to be very careful when going up or down steps. My distance vision was so much better that I knew I was going to have to adapt to these bifocals. But I was sure shocked when I looked in the mirror and saw how thick my new glasses looked. The fronts of Ali’s lenses had been getting to the point where they were almost flat in her last pair of glasses and this new pair had totally flat fronts. She looked very cute wearing her new glasses, although they did look thicker. Grace looked very nice wearing her glasses, but they were so much thinner than mine and Ali’s that it was no wonder they looked very nice. Rob and I had talked about me ordering a new pair of myodisc lensed glasses for me to wear on special occasions, and I mentioned this to the optician. She brought out a new frame that had just arrived from the stockroom, and when I saw it, I just knew it would look perfect on me. The optician and my girls all loved it and even though I couldn’t see myself while wearing the empty frame I ordered my new myodiscs before we went home. After I saw how thick my new glasses looked, I was a little worried that possibly Rob would not care for them much. But I had worried for nothing as he told me I looked more beautiful than ever wearing my new glasses. With my lousy eyesight I was really fortunate to have married a guy who likes girls wearing thick glasses. When we got home I suggested that Grace should phone Rachel to see if she wanted to try her old -6.50D glasses instead of Ali’s old -7.00D glasses, or maybe if the -7.00D glasses were not strong enough possibly she might be able to wear Ali’s old -8.00D glasses. Rachel was not home but was over visiting Lucy Simms. I had not known that Rachel and Lucy were friends, and I certainly did not expect that the Reverend Simms would let Rachel in the house now that she was wearing glasses. Anyway, Milly told Grace that she would have Rachel call her back when she got home from the Simms house. From the story I got from Grace after she and Rachel talked, I surmised that there must have been an ongoing battle between Mrs. Simms and her husband about Lucy’s eyesight. The Reverend was not home that afternoon when Rachel went over, and of course Lucy wanted to try on her glasses. Lucy was able to see quite well through the lenses of Alice’s old -7.00D glasses, and she showed her mom how much better she could see wearing them. When Rachel took her glasses back and had to leave Lucy was bawling her eyes out. Within a few days Mrs. Simms had taken Lucy to see the eye doctor. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the rectory that night that Lucy had tried on Rachel’s glasses because the battle between the Reverend, his wife and daughter must have been an epic one. The ladies won as evidenced by the glasses that Lucy was wearing on her nose the next time, I saw Lucy and her mom. Lucy had been struggling for a long time, and her eyes were very bad as evidenced by the thickness of her new glasses. They looked to be even stronger than Alice’s newest glasses were. The following school year Lucy Simms was back in the school system. She was placed in Grade 8 along with her former school mates, but she had to do a lot of extra work to catch up, as her mom had not been able to keep Lucy abreast of the curriculum – or maybe it was also the fact that Lucy couldn’t see very well. Anyway, Lucy was a bright girl and she soon was abreast of her classmates. Lucy also had to get a new pair of glasses at Christmas that year and I knew from talking to Rachel that Lucy’s new glasses were so strong that Rachel couldn’t see well with them. And that was after Rachel had moved up to wearing the old -8D glasses that Ali no longer needed. The reason for the Reverend Simms strong dislike of glasses was revealed to the parishioner’s one Sunday soon after Lucy got her first pair of glasses. The good Reverend showed up in the pulpit wearing glasses himself. And his glasses were not just ordinary glasses. They were about the strongest myodiscs that anyone could possibly wear. I got the whole story from Milly, who had talked with Esther Simms after church that Sunday. Apparently Reverend Simms had been very nearsighted as a young child and his eyes just got worse and worse. While he was at his former parish he had been fitted with contact lenses and he had not been seen in public wearing glasses until the day before, when he lost one of his contacts and either had to get a new pair or stay home unless he wore glasses. His eye doctor told him that he needed to go without contacts for a week or two before he could get new contacts because he had been wearing them for far too many hours a day and his cornea’s could be damaged if this continued. So Reverend Simms had to bite the bullet and expose himself for the phony that he was. After the Reverend Simms showed his true self there were a number of students that I knew needed glasses show up in school wearing them. The parents had listened to their kids and the kid’s teacher now that Reverend Simms had been exposed. I often wondered what the reason for the Reverend’s intense dislike of glasses was, but after his tirade at me and my girls I wasn’t going to ask him. I suspected that possibly he had been teased and bullied as a young boy, but I also suspected that his glasses were not the only reason for this as he was likely as much of a jerk as a kid as he was in later life. And then as his glasses got stronger and stronger when he grew to be an adult, I suspect that he hated his thick glasses and his poor eyesight with a passion. Contact lenses were a dream to him, and when wearing them he could pretend he was perfect – and superior to everyone. Now the hypocrite had been exposed as just an imperfect mortal like the rest of us. Specs4ever Jan 2019
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