By Edward Cohen

(Editor’s Note: Edward is a member of our Rochester Chapter.)

I am a senior citizen dealing with late-stage RP (retinitis pigmentosa).  My decline has sped up in the past couple of years.  While I still have some usable vision, things I could see just a year ago, I no longer can.

In late 2014, along with my wife, I started to look for the weekly planner I needed.  For those of you with some eye sight and a busy schedule, you know that there are few calendar options that are easy to see, have a lot of space for writing and in a form convenient to carry with you.  After visiting a few of the local big box stores, we found nothing that met my needs.

So the logical next step was to go online because everyone knows that everything is on the Internet.  But after hours of struggling with search engines and websites, I found nothing that had large daily spaces in which to write, used huge black letters and was intended to be used on the go. 

I kept telling myself, “This is not that hard.” 

It quickly became obvious that I needed either to stop talking about it, or find another solution.  I needed to avoid pushing my wife to the point where she would say she was tired of hearing me complaining about my situation.  People in the NFB know that giving up is never a good option and rarely solves a problem.  I came to accept that I was going to have to make my own.

Fortunately, I have been blessed with a creative and problem solving nature.  So in mid-January 2015, with marker and ruler in hand, it took less than an hour to lay out the key features of a weekly planner/calendar that would work for me.  Some weeks later, I showed my work to a neighbor who has a home based graphics business.  She liked what she saw and agreed to help me get it to a point where it could be printed. 

By late March 2015, the layout came to life.  At that point, I was ready to print one at the local quick print shop.  Then came the first two shocks.  Because of the unique black lines around the edge of the weekly pages, the printing had to be done by a large-scale printing house with the big machines. 

The second shock was hearing that printing my one eight-and-a-half by 11-inch calendar would cost over $100.  But the printer said that printing a few more only raised the price a little.  Thinking if I could find a few buyers for them, I could reduce the cost for my copy.  So I told them to print a few more. 

I was a little concerned that anyone but me would want it.  After all, the calendar only started in April and lacked any monthly pages.  Plus what would my wife say about spending that much for a calendar.  I knew it was a gamble, but one I felt I had to take.

By April I had five calendars and was using one.  As I occasionally showed them to local NFB members and other people dealing with vision loss, I was a bit overwhelmed by how enthusiastic many were upon seeing the calendar.  By May, the extras were gone. 

At times, it was both wonderful and humbling to hear those first buyers praise the calendar’s design.  It was gratifying to hear them say that with this calendar they could far easier manage their daily schedule.  When I asked how they were doing that now, I heard everything from using a large wall-size calendar, to 3-by-5 cards, all the way to their spouse having to keep their calendar for them.  These were people who were used to living active, independent lives.  It was humbling and a bit depressing when they lost the ability to manage their schedule on their own.

Hearing the same sort of reaction and stories repeatedly really got to me.  In addition, on multiple occasions I was encouraged to start a business and make more to help more people.  But starting a business was the farthest thing from my mind.  I retired years ago, I have a busy life and I’ve never wanted to be a businessperson.  But I couldn’t shake the memory of how appreciative those first few buyers were. 

I’ve been dealing with progressive stages of vision loss since a child.  But I only became involved and came to know many blind people through the NFB in the mid-'90s in my previous city.  As with all of us, each of these people had traveled their own path.  All had overcome obstacles, some of which I wasn’t sure that I could have overcome.  Had blindness not brought us together, I would never have met them.  Their lives are a testament to true resilience and grit.  I truly believe that my life has been enriched by knowing many of these blind and low-vision people through our organization.  It dawned on me that maybe if I were to produce these calendars, I could in a small way give something back to this community that had given me so much.

During those times of deciding what to do, the words of my father, long passed, would come back to me.  He had much small business experience.  How I wished I could talk to him about this decision.  I remembered him often saying something like, “…don’t get involved with a business or try to sell something that you don’t really believe in.”  Remembering these words helped me decide.

By June, I had made up my mind to take the plunge.  That began what now seems like a lost summer.  It was a period when I was on the phone or the computer every day and night for hours.  Days were long and hours of sleep reduced.  My wife would see me on the computer when she headed up to bed, and find me in the same place when she came down the next morning.  Every little detail had to be addressed.  Things that should not have taken long or been hard were time-consuming and difficult.  But on that rainy October day when the printer dropped off my calendars, the past months seemed like they had passed in a blur.  Now the challenge is and will remain, getting the word out that this product is available.

What I hope you take away from my story is declining eyesight should not mean you must accept being frustrated by the situation you find yourself in.  You don’t have to go to the lengths that I did, but don’t just accept some vision-related issue that is frustrating you, do something about it.

And oh yes, if you want to check out the calendar go online to   EZ2SeeProducts.com.  If you do Facebook, please Share the page using the button on the right side of the top banner.  You can also buy the EZ2 See calendar through the NFB Independence Market or Independent Living Aids plus the Duluth and the Chicago Lighthouses for the Blind.  I would welcome your feedback and ideas at: Edward.Cohen350@gmail.com or 507/226-8040.