The last year that I taught school before I retired, I had a reasonably manageable class of 4th grade kids. During the latter part of grade 4 some of the students would have their 10th birthday, and when they had gone on to grade 5 the whole class would then be 10 by Christmas time. One young lady named Amanda Mathews was more noticeable by her silence than by her participation, and shortly after Christmas that year I began to suspect that part of her problem might be caused by a visual impairment rather than by a lack of intelligence. After watching Amanda for a while, I decided that I would talk with the school secretary and see about sending a note home to the parents to see if Amanda could have a vision assessment done. I thought that she could likely see fairly well up close, because she was often reading or drawing pictures in her notebooks, but her face had a vacant expression when she looked up at anything in the distance. I mentioned this to our secretary so that she could call the parents. Valentines Day came and went, and so did Easter. Amanda had her 10th birthday in mid-April, and still was not wearing glasses. I went back to chat with our secretary again. She told me that she had contacted Children’s Aid, but they had not seemed to be very interested as Amanda was a ward of the state and was in a group home. Another phone call to the agency was made, and about 3 weeks later Amanda showed up at school wearing a pair of cheap, poorly fitting frames with what, to me anyway, looked to be stronger lenses than the average child in grade 4 wore. Now that Amanda wore glasses her schoolwork improved as did her class participation. She was still shy, but no longer avoided answering questions directed at the class in general. At the end of the school year, I recommended Amanda for promotion to grade 5 and I went on to retire from teaching forever. Around the third week of September, I got a call from another of the teachers I had retired with. She asked me if I was bored yet, and when I admitted I was a little she told me that she was volunteering with Children’s Aid, and they were looking for another part time driver to take some of their children to appointments outside the system. My involvement would be minimal and would consist of driving kids to doctors and dentist appointments that were scheduled well in advance, so it should be easy to plan my week around them. I agreed that this was something I could handle so the following day I met with the lady in charge of the system. She had to photocopy my driver’s license. I had to phone my insurance agent and have them named on my policy. I also had to ensure that I had blanket coverage for the kids I was going to be hauling around, even though it was a volunteer position, and I was not even getting reimbursed for gas. Finally, we had all the t’s crossed and the i’s dotted and if I wanted to, I was going to have my first passenger the next day. I was a little surprised when I saw the name. It was Amanda Mathews, and I expressed surprise. “Amanda just got her glasses in May. Why is she going back to the eye doctor?” I questioned. “You know Amanda? She started to complain that she couldn’t see very well within a month or so of getting her glasses. After you have been around here for a while you will see that we are pretty low on the totem pole of most of the doctors and dentists. The pay scale the government works from is much lower than they can earn when seeing the general public, but they have to do a certain amount of what we call government work, or they are placing their professional license in jeopardy. So, they do the minimum that they can get away with. The eye doctor was informed that Amanda was having trouble with her glasses back in June, well within the 3 month period where the doctor will provide free replacement lenses if the patient has a problem. His receptionist put us off until now before we could get an appointment, but we informed them that since we reported a problem, we expected the 3 month free replacement to still be in effect.” Emily said. “I taught Amanda last year in grade 4. I was the one who pushed to get her the first pair of glasses. Get me the information as to when her vision was reported as being unsatisfactory, along with the name of who called as well as who they spoke to, and I will fight for Amanda to the best of my ability.” I responded. I picked Amanda up at her group home the following morning. She recognized me when I got close enough, but I could tell she couldn’t see much of anything, even wearing her glasses. We were early for her appointment, but they were not very busy so the one lady, who I presumed was the nurse, took Amanda into a room and did some tests. She walked Amanda back out and I asked if I could go in with her, so the nurse lead the 2 of us down the hall to one of the examination rooms. She put Amanda into the chair and raised the chair higher to match the big machine the doctor uses to change the lenses. The doctor came in within a few minutes, looked at Amanda’s file and said something to Amanda that sounded like: “You really aren’t seeing well, are you?” Then he swung the big machine in front of her face and the machine did a bunch of whirring and clicking on its own. I knew what it had done. The machine is hooked to a computer which takes the auto refractor test results and brings those lenses into the machine – I think it is called a phoropter or something like that. Then the doctor did a bunch of changing of lenses and he asked a number of times for each eye if this was better or if that was better. He was doing everything so fast I couldn’t help but think that there was no way he could get things right if he didn’t give her a minute or two to actually focus before he switched lenses. He then took a trial frame and placed some lenses into it and put the trial frame on Amanda’s face. “Are you her father Sir.?” He asked. “I am Adrian Stone. No, I am just the representative from Children’s Aid.” I replied. “Amanda’s prescription has really jumped. The auto refractor showed quite an increase from what her previous prescription was and now I had to increase the power of the lenses even more than the auto refractor showed.” The doctor spoke. “What was her original prescription, Doctor?” I asked. “Five months ago, she needed -3.25D, which is a rather strong first prescription for a 10 year old. The first test with the auto refractor this time showed she needed more than -5.50D which is a huge jump in only 5 months. For the second and third test the numbers were even higher. And while I was testing her with the Phoropter she showed that she could see the 20/20 line with a -7.00D prescription. I have made up the trial frame with prescription lenses and I want her to wear it for a while to see if she can tolerate that much minus.” The doctor told me. “Do we have to see you again before we can go?” I asked. “No, my nurse knows what to do. But you will probably want to wait around to get the new lenses placed in her frame after my nurse confirms that this prescription will work.” He suggested. Amanda and I went out to the waiting room with her wearing the trial frame. Even though it was pretty cumbersome on her face she seemed to be quite happy that she could see a whole lot better again. We wandered around the optical store portion for a few minutes, but mostly concentrated on the selection of free frames. I found one frame that looked like it would be a better fit for the size of Amanda’s face as well having a nicer appearance with her coloring. And the frame looked to be much sturdier than the frame Amanda presently had for her original glasses. I helped Amanda remove the trial frame and lenses so she could try the frame I thought would fit better and it not only looked nicer on her face, but I was sure that this frame would last much longer. Before I put the trial frame back on Amanda’s face, I looked at the number on the lenses the doctor had put in it for her. Both eyes read -7.00D on one of the little lenses and -0.50D on the other. I knew that was stronger than what the doctor had suggested, but I figured that was why he was having Amanda wear the trial frame for a while to see if she had any problems. After we had gotten bored looking at new frames, we sat back down in the waiting area. The nurse came over and she took the trial frame off Amanda’s face and changed the lenses, telling us that we should wait just a little longer. Amanda was reading a magazine while we waited, and she seemed to have no trouble reading with whatever lenses the nurse had just put in the frame. I looked and the number read 8.00, so I asked Amanda how things in the distance looked to her. She looked up, glanced around a bit and she said that everything looked really clear. The nurse came back over and asked Amanda the same question. After receiving the same answer, she commented that she would then go ahead and get the lab started on making Amanda’s new lenses. “Amanda’s old frame doesn’t look like it would be a good choice for the new lenses, does it?” I asked. She went and got Amanda’s old glasses and looked them over carefully before she replied: “They are not the best choice for a prescription this strong. But in order for us to do a free lens exchange we need to use this frame.” “Would you sell us this frame?” I asked and I went over and picked the one from the rack that Amanda and I had looked at. “There is no price on it. It is a free frame and goes with the lenses.” The nurse replied. “Exactly. Then there should be no problem putting Amanda’s new lenses in another free frame.” I suggested. “Let me get the lab started on the lenses she needs. I will ask the opticians and the doctor what we should do.” She responded. She walked through a door in the back of the office, likely going into the lens lab. When she came back out, I saw her talk to the doctor for a minute, then she went to the reception desk and talked with the 2 girls there. She went off with another patient and one of the other 2 girls came over to talk to us. “You asked about having the new lenses placed into a new frame?” Karla queried. ‘It just seems logical that since the original frame isn’t really strong enough to take the new lenses, we should start off right away by using a better frame.” I replied. “Your logic is completely understandable, but we are pretty sure that Corporate would not see things that way. We are just going to have to put the new lenses in the same frame although I could sell you the free frame for around $75.00.” Karla responded. I thought about this for a minute before I asked, “What would it cost us to have her lenses made up in this frame?” “We can do that for our free frame and only the cost of the lenses special for $88.00. But with the young lady’s strong prescription she should really have the higher index lenses and they would be $165.00 in that frame for her prescription.” Karla told us. “I will be paying this out of my own pocket and that is a little too much for me. I have a senior’s card that is good for 10% off at this chain. If we use normal lenses that would then make the cost of her new glasses to be around $80.00. And if that works, have the lab put the first set of lenses in this frame.” I said. “Oh yes, we can do that Mr. Stone.” And off Karla went to take the new frame back to the lab, as well as to run my credit card for $80.00. So far this volunteer work had cost me nothing but money. The money was well spent, although my time for having a 10 year old girl hanging on my arm had passed by 20 years or more ago. When I was 21 and was studying to become a teacher, I had entered into a long term living arrangement with a very attractive young lady. Like all my previous girlfriends Layla was quite nearsighted, however the only time I saw her wearing her glasses was when we were alone together in our apartment. Layla had such an aversion to wearing her glasses that she usually wore contacts from the time she got up in the morning until she went to bed at night and even though I told her she was just as pretty wearing her glasses as she was in contacts my words fell on deaf ears. During our 4 years together, we gradually drifted apart, and we mutually ended our relationship. After I became a teacher, I met Sally. Sally was a tall, well formed, redhead with striking green eyes hidden behind the strong lenses of her glasses. Sally was the first girl I had ever met who needed myodisc lenses in her glasses, so I knew her prescription was super strong. Back then, when the lenses of a pair of glasses reached about -10D they were about as thick as the lens blank would support without going past the edge of the blank. From over a -10D to -13D the front of the lenses also became concaved, making them a biconcave lens. From -13D up to -20.00D the front concave became deeper and deeper and most people who needed a -17D and above usually chose to have what was called a myodisc lens made with a flat front. The first myodiscs were fairly nice looking, although people often called them a fried egg lens because of the bowl in the center. I liked these lenses better than the -18D ones Sally wore, as hers were done on a plus rear base and I didn’t care for the magnification around the edges. As far as my relationship with Sally, I only have one piece of advice for any guys who read this story. Do not fall in love with a pair of glasses. It might work for you, but it didn’t work for me, and after dating for 2 years followed by a 6 year attempt at making marriage work, I promised myself that I would swear off women and marriage. I no longer know where Sally is, nor do I care. So that is my story and that is why I was sitting here beside a very nearsighted 10 year old child wishing this child could have been my daughter 20 years ago. Around 45 minutes had gone by when the back door opened and a young man in a white lab coat came through into the reception area. He handed the tray to Karla, and I figured she would be heading our way as soon as she finished what she was doing. I was looking forward to seeing what they had done with a -8.00D prescription. I don’t think I had seen anything over a -5.00D done in regular index plastic for a number of years now. And I was expecting that even in the small frame we had chosen that there would be a lot of edge thickness sticking out behind the frame. Karla motioned us over to the fitting table, and she removed the trial frame from Amanda’s face, replacing it with the new glasses. Karla was very good with the fitting part, and she only had to make a couple of adjustments before Amanda seemed happy with the way her glasses felt. Amanda turned to me and gave me a great big smile. The lenses were not quite as thick as I had thought they might have been, but from the front I could tell that there was a bit of cut in and quite a few power rings around the edge of the lenses. Amanda looked really cute wearing them though. I told Karla that we would come back to pick up the other pair later, but just then the lab guy came out with another tray. Karla fitted the old frame to Amanda’s face, which was a pretty simple task as they already fit. I was glad I had spent my money to buy Amanda the new frame, because the old frame screamed blind child to me. The lenses looked really thick because the eye size was bigger, and the pale flesh color of the frame did nothing to hide the lenses. These glasses looked like a pair of thick lenses walking, but they were almost necessary for Amanda to have around in case her new glasses were ever broken. I drove Amanda to school, where she could be in time for the afternoon classes. As I was dropping her off, she handed me the case containing her old glasses and she asked me if I could keep them safe for her. I asked her why she couldn’t keep them herself, and in her little girls voice she said: “The other kids keep stealing my stuff.” My heart broke. I did not expect to see Amanda for a while. Her eye doctor had suggested another appointment in April to check her prescription, so that was still a while away. But one day I saw that Amanda Mathews had a dentist appointment that week and I signed myself up to drive her to that. When I picked Amanda up at her school that day, she had a big smile on her face and as she got into the car she said, “I was hoping it would be you Mr. Stone.” I told her I had asked to drive her when I saw her name on the list and she said thank you. When I took her back to the foster home, I asked the lady in charge if it would be possible for me to pick Amanda up a week from Saturday and take her Christmas shopping. I had noticed that Amanda’s coat and her clothing looked pretty worn out. I am not rich, nor am I poor and without children I do not need to save every penny, so if I spent a few dollars on Amanda to make her life better I would not even miss the money. On the Saturday morning before Christmas, I picked Amanda up and we drove to the mall. When she asked where we were going, and I told her to the mall for some Christmas presents she told me that she didn’t have any money to buy presents and I told her that I did and that the presents were for her. I bought her a coat, a new pair of jeans, a couple of sweaters, some socks and underwear and when we got to the shoe department, I saw her look enviously at a nice pair of running shoes, but then she settled on a rather plain but cheaper pair that did fit her nicely. I asked her if she would rather have the fancier pair, but she told me that if she got anything that was too nice the other kids might take them from her. Once again that was heartbreaking for me. We went to the food court at the mall, and I let Amanda choose whatever she wanted to eat. When we were finished, she said “Thank you for everything Mr. Stone.” I told her that she could call me Adrian, or if she wanted to think of me as a grandfather, she could call me Gramps, or Pops or Grampa or anything that suited her. She said she would like to call me Grampa, so I said that was fine. When I dropped Amanda off back at the group home, I suggested to Mrs. Mullins that what I had purchased for Amanda had better stay with Amanda. She told me that she would try to see that the other kids left Amanda’s possessions alone, but she couldn’t control the bigger girls. Fortunately, Amanda was a little small for her age, so her new clothing likely wouldn’t fit any of the others. After the new year arrived, I felt that maybe I would like to take Amanda out for lunch every Saturday so I thought I would mention this to Mrs. Mullins. She shocked me a little when she told me that I didn’t seem like one of those guys and I told her I wasn’t. Her advice to me then was that I had better be sure that I was never alone with Amanda and that if I was to ever take her to my apartment, I had better get myself a video cam to protect myself and that I should save the videos for a long, long time. Then she went on to say that she would be asking Amanda occasionally to see if I ever touched her inappropriately at any time. I thanked her for her concerns, and I made sure I bought myself a video cam for the car that showed the driver and the passenger as well as outside and I bought 3 cams and a receiver for the apartment. I told Mrs. Mullins what I had done, and when I picked Amanda up for our first Saturday lunch date, I made sure that Mrs. Mullins and Amanda knew that Amanda and I would be on video whenever we were by ourselves. I hated the fact that I had to go to this extreme to protect myself, but I was also doing this for Amanda’s protection in case people suggested that she had taken advantage of me. After I got the video cams, I made sure that anytime we were together was on video and I made sure I transferred all the videos to my hard drive along with making a back up copy. This was possibly a little overboard, but why take a chance when you have the right technology? Amanda’s next eye doctor appointment was a few days before her 11th birthday, and when the doctor had pronounced Amanda’s prescription suitable for another 6 month interval, I asked him why Amanda had needed such a large increase within her first 5 months of wearing glasses. “I suspect that I was a little hasty in determining her prescription for her first glasses Mr. Stone. I probably just went with the strongest prescription that the auto refractor indicated she needed. With a plus prescription young people are sometimes able to provide enough plus to overcome as much as +3D of hyperopia. Since a minus prescription is a matter of too much plus inside the eye any pseudo myopia caused by too much close work generally causes an eye doctor to prescribe a stronger minus prescription than the child can get away with. Since Amanda’s first prescription was rather a strong one, I think I just figured that she would grow into whatever prescription I gave her. But in Amanda’s case I now feel that she was actually a little more nearsighted than the auto refractor told me and that once she got her glasses her eyes quickly adapted, and her ciliary muscles provided more plus in her eyes whenever she was doing near point work. So, she ended up under corrected, and we are now finding out that it is better to over correct than under correct because the eye strain is worse when a patient is under corrected, and they can become more myopic quickly.” He informed me. “That would indicate to me that you gave Amanda a little higher correction than it appeared she needed this time.” I responded. “You are correct. And she is still slightly over corrected so I hope that she can get through the next 6 months before she needs a higher power lens in her glasses.” the doctor answered. I drove Amanda back to the group home. The girls that lived here would likely never be adopted and would age out of the system. If a child is not adopted before the age of 10 their chance of finding adoptive parents grew less and less. And a child wearing glasses as strong as Amanda wore would have that as a strike against her. I would have loved to adopt Amanda, but a single man over 60 had no chance to be accepted as an adoptive father to an 11 year old female. I had been spending Saturdays with Amanda for a couple of months. I suppose Mrs. Mullins had asked Amanda almost every time I returned her to the group home if I had done anything inappropriate and I know that Amanda had always answered that I hadn’t even touched her except for a hug when I left her at the home. I made sure I spent a little bit of time chatting with Mrs. Mullins every time I was at the home, and I think that she understood that I was just a lonely man who enjoyed having another person in his life rather than a pedophile. She probably thought I was a little crazy, because most times when we returned Amanda had something new with her. I didn’t know it, but Amanda had been lobbying Mrs. Mullins to have her let Amanda come to stay full time with me. I had shown Amanda my apartment a couple of times and when she had told me she would like to live with me I had told her that I would be fine having her live with me, but that Children’s Aid would never allow that to happen. One Saturday when I went to pick Amanda up, she had her backpack full of stuff. “She can stay with you tonight. But I want you to bring me a copy of the recordings.” Mrs. Mullins said to me. “I will do better than that. Give me your phone and I will download the video cam app and give you my password so you can check anytime.” I replied. I wouldn’t say I was thrilled at having done that, but Mrs. Mullins was crossing the line for Amanda – and myself so I didn’t mind putting her at ease about her decision. Our day went well, and it was really nice to have company in the apartment that evening. Amanda watched some television and went to bed fairly early while I went to bed at my usual time. Sunday morning, I made her breakfast, and she spent the morning reading and doing some schoolwork at the kitchen table. I quite enjoyed having another person around to keep me company. When Amanda had her next eye appointment just before her 12th birthday the doctor told me that she needed a bit of an increase in her prescription. He suggested that Amanda could get away with a prescription of -9.25 or -9.50, but that he would suggest getting her glasses with at least a -10D prescription. Amanda had worn her previous glasses with the -8.00D prescription for a year and a half, so the over correction had worked well, and I was inclined to let the doctor continue using a slight over correction again. I asked him if she might do better with a prescription of -10.50D and he told me that she might be able to stretch her next new pair of glasses out to as much as 2 years if we chose to do that. I helped Amanda pick out a new frame that looked to be every bit as sturdy as her existing one, and I ordered her new -10.50D lenses in 1.67 hi index so that they would not look quite as thick as the cheaper regular plastic ones would have been. The in house lens lab could have done a -10D prescription for Amanda that day, but the additional -0.50D meant that they would have to order her new lenses from an outside supplier, and they would take 2 or 3 days to get them and fit them to her new frame. I gladly paid for them, and while they were not cheap, Amanda was sort of turning into the granddaughter I would never otherwise have had. I was prepared to return Amanda to the group home anytime she wished to go back. But as I looked back at the past year, I could not remember the last time Amanda had slept at the group home. I knew that Mrs. Mullins was still receiving the stipend from Children’s Aid for Amanda’s care, and I suppose I was spending my own money foolishly on Amanda, but I didn’t care. By now I loved that young lady as if she really was my own grandchild. The video cams were still sending their signals back to Mrs. Mullins and she could check them at any time. She would have found no improprieties. By the time she turned 14 Amanda was in junior high and was still spending all of her time with me at my apartment. Her school was a short walk from my place and Amanda had moved in completely. I was still driving other kids to their appointments and once in a while I would either have to pick up or drop off kids at Mrs. Mullins place. Of course. we would chat for a while whenever I was there, and one day she asked me if I would like to look at the information file for Amanda. I was interested and was rather intrigued to see that a picture of Amanda’s mother showed that she wore glasses that appeared to have fairly strong lenses according to the amount of cut in that was showing. Amanda’s parents were both fairly good looking, and I could see that Amanda was going to take after her mother in her appearance. I had wondered where Amanda’s myopia had come from and now, I knew that she had inherited it from her mother. With high myopia in her genetic background, I would not be at all surprised if Amanda ended up having a few more increases. Amanda had made it past her 14th birthday wearing the same -10.50D glasses she had been prescribed at age 12. It did not come as a surprise to me when we were at the local mall shopping for some clothes to fit her rapidly growing body and she had to push her glasses tight to her nose and really squint at the menu board in the food court to determine what she wanted to have for lunch. And this was after she had walked close enough to the order counter that I knew her eyesight had really deteriorated a lot. As we sat eating our burgers, I told her I had noticed her squinting at the menu and that I thought her eyesight must have gotten a little worse. She agreed with my observations, and she did not argue when I told her I would make another appointment to have her eyes tested. Since her eye doctor had his office at that mall, I stopped by to see when the earliest appointment we could get would be. The receptionist told us that the doctor saves Saturday afternoon for walk in patients, and that he had no one booked for his next appointment after he was finished with his current one. Amanda and I had nothing pressing to attend to, so we signed in and sat down. A few minutes later the nurse who assists the doctor came out and took Amanda back to the room where she does the vision assessment testing. I knew that there would be a pretty good increase required in her prescription, so it was not a surprise to me when the nurse told me that she definitely needed an increase in her prescription. I really enjoyed going into the examination room with Amanda. Today the doctor was already in the room waiting for us. We had passed a young lady with a little girl of around 7 or 8 walking towards the reception desk and I assumed that the girl would be getting her first of many pairs of glasses that day. The doctor sat Amanda in the chair, took off her glasses, handed them to me to hold and brought the phoropter into position is front of her face. The phoropter did it’s usual clicking noises and when they stopped, he asked Amanda if everything was clear. She tried to read the line he had projected on the wall, but she only got about half of the letters correct and I thought that was likely guesswork. He flipped a few more lenses and finally Amanda was able to read the projected line. Then he switched to a smaller line, but Amanda could not read it, so he changed a few more lenses and Amanda was then able to read the whole line. “Mr. Stone, you seem to be the one accompanying Amanda whenever she has her eyes tested. Are you her legal guardian?” The doctor asked. “No sir. She does have her own bedroom at my apartment, but she also has a room at her foster home. And I have installed video camera’s that feed back to the housemother at the foster home so there is nothing improper going on.” I spoke. “I wasn’t suggesting that there was. I just need someone who can discuss Amanda’s progressing myopia with and suggest a course of action.” He responded. “Even though Amanda is just over 14 years old she is very intelligent, and I think she is capable of choosing the best course of action for her own eyesight. Tell us what you think and between the three of us we should be able to make a decision.” I replied. “Well, here is what I found. The autorefractor gave me a starting point of -12.50D, which is a full -2D over what Amanda is presently wearing. But with that prescription Amanda could not read the 20/20 line at all. I increased the power of the lenses to -13.50D and she could read the 20/20 line again. Amanda is at the age where she is rapidly becoming a woman and it has been proven that an increase in female hormones has a tendency to increase myopia in pre-pubescent girls so I suspect that a -13.50D prescription will not last longer than 3 to 6 months. I tried her with -14.50D lenses and she was still able to see the 20/20 line. I would like to give you a prescription of -14.50D for this pair of glasses. What do you think about this Amanda?” He queried. “Well, I know that my glasses are really expensive, and I don’t want my Grampa to spend more money on me than he has to. If you think I need the stronger lenses, then I guess we had better get them.” Amanda said. That is what I would have suggested as well, so I was pleased that Amanda had chosen that option. We went back out to the reception area and looked around at the frame choices that were available. I took pictures of Amanda wearing 3 of the frames she liked the best and of course they were not in the free frame rack. But Amanda had gone for more than 2 years without a new pair of glasses, and we had not purchased her a second pair of glasses then, so I felt that with her stronger prescription now she was going to need a spare pair. They had a 2 for one offer as long as the first pair was the more expensive of the two. All 3 of the frames Amanda liked were available in the sale offer so I looked the frames over carefully and suggested the two that I thought would be the best for her prescription. I purchased the 1.74 hi index lenses for the most expensive pair, and against the optician’s advice I had them put regular plastic lenses in the second pair. When the optician advised me against that because the lenses would be too thick for the temples to close, I told her that they could just shave off the back of the lens blank so it would be thin enough to close, and it didn’t really matter if the glasses had a myodiscs appearance because they would likely only be used in an emergency. When she saw my mind was made up, she wrote on the second order to thin the lenses so the temples would close. I paid for Amanda’s new glasses, and we headed back to the apartment. It took over a week before we were called to tell us that Amanda’s glasses had come in, and of course Amanda wanted to go to pick them up right away. I was a little worried that a -4D increase in the power of her lenses would be hard for Amanda to adapt to. She had been able to read the 20/20 line with that prescription so I assumed it would be fine, but I suspected that she would take a few days before she was comfortable with the stronger prescription. Karla, the optician we had used before, fitted the hi index pair first and when Amanda looked around, she was amazed at how well she could see. If I had known what a nice job they would do on the regular plastic lenses I likely wouldn’t have spent the extra money on the 1.74 index lenses, but with such a high prescription at the age of 14 Amanda really needed to have a backup pair. People just didn’t realize that Amanda now had a focal point of around 70mm – or about 3” and she could not see anything clearly past that point. There was nothing she could ever do without glasses now. The next morning when it was time for Amanda to go to school, I was surprised to see her wearing the obviously thicker regular plastic lensed glasses. I asked her why she had chosen those glasses and she said they felt softer on her eyes. It took me a minute, but I realized that what she was trying to say was that it was easier for her eyes to focus through the lenses, so I asked her if that is what she meant and she agreed. I had heard somewhere that the regular plastic lenses took less effort than the high index ones and this sort of confirmed it. By the time Amanda was 17 she was actually living with me. My address was on all her identification. Her school records all had my address on them. She was in her final year of high school and was an honor student. She has been working part time after school and on weekends ever since she was 15 and she was banking every penny she could. She has applied for any scholarships that were available, and with her grades as high as they are she will hopefully get one or two. But whatever she needs I will be there to help her. Mrs. Mullins asked us to clean out Amanda’s room right around the time she turned 15, and while I am still running the web cams whenever we are home, I doubt that Mrs. Mullins has even looked at them for years. Amanda and I have a rule that whenever we are out of our room we are to be fully dressed. She knows I would never touch her, but she respects the rule. I did have to get some assistance from Mrs. Mullins when Amanda had her first period back when she was just turning 13. I knew what to do, but I thought a woman’s help would be safer. Amanda does not know that she is the beneficiary of my will, and while my estate isn’t huge, what there is will give her a decent boost in life for an orphan girl. Actually, I do not think Amanda considers herself an orphan as she has totally adopted me as her grandpa. It has been 3 years now since Amanda got her -14.50D glasses. She still chooses to wear the regular plastic lensed ones most of the time, but when she goes out on a date, she does wear her “good” glasses. I haven’t noticed any signs that her glasses are not strong enough, but I will likely insist on another eye exam before she heads off to wherever she chooses to go for her continuing education. By plucking this young lady out from under the wings of Children’s Aid I have made my life a whole lot more fulfilling. Specs4ever July 2021