"I describe my life as a journey, a journey that has been an interesting and challenging one. It is a celebration of meeting many wonderful people along the way. It is a journey that has taken me down paths I didn't expect to go; or at times took time to discover. It is a journey where I had to come to terms with tough decisions about how I was dealing with things, as my vision changed. With the above said, I say at the outset of this article my life is good and for that I celebrate that every day!

Key people in my journey were and are:

My family. My mother! She was a true advocate who took things one day at a time. She was a resource person and a person who listened.

I am amazed at the resources she found for me in the 1960s. Remember we didn't have the internet. How she found resources for books is impressive. She found, as one example, Recordings for the Blind, Inc. She found about where to buy me a Perkins Brailler; I still have that machine in use today.

The big decision she helped make for me dealt with learning Braille. I did have some limited vision and my mother insisted that I should learn Braille. That was a life changer and having Braille in my life was key to my education and work opportunities. Braille, in brief, is a reading and writing system used by the visually impaired. I'd urge you to consider its use as you consider your options.

Later in life I met a wonderful lady, who I married and enjoyed a wonderful life with 35 years until her passing. My wife was so supportive. When I was a professor she helped me grade papers and when I completed my doctorate, she was there. She was always there for me and was always looking for ways to empower me to get the most out of life. She was always urging me to be up to date on technology, urging me to have a "tool box" with all that I needed.

My daughter has continued this support, helping me adapt our kitchen for my use when I am alone during the day.

I was fortunate too to have wonderful and supportive mentors as I went through school and started working!

People! Reach out and find and engage with people on your own journey.

Technology! As you look at ways to deal with sight loss, be open to investigate technologies — high and low tech; specialized products for the visually impaired and main stream products. Develop a tool box that gives you what you need. Engage in discussions with those around you and ask questions. You will be glad that you did."

"I was born and raised in Montreal. I am one of three children, but the only one who inherited Retinitis Pigmentosa, RP. I'm at least the fourth generation of my family to be affected by RP; my father and grandfather ad RP, and most likely, so did my great-grandmother, who died blind in the early days of the twentieth century.

Through my childhood and into my early thirties, RP affected my life in two main ways: I had very little peripheral vision, and a total lack of any kind of night vision. However, at the age of 38, my vision deteriorated extremely quickly. After almost twenty years of employment, as a direct result of no longer being able to read, I had to take a Disability Retirement from CN Rail.

At the time, I was married to an abusive woman who lacked any ability to empathize or support me in my adapting to my vision loss. Her abuse was demoralizing at best, and debilitating at worst. It took me a great deal of time to rediscover my true character and develop new strengths in order to divorce her. Through all of this, I discovered new skills and talents, both rich and capable enough to allow me to start a new career, that of being a gardener.

I was employed as the local town gardener for seven years between 2006 and 2013, working with over seven thousand annual flowers and plants each spring and summer, and planting over forty-thousand tulip bulbs in that time frame. The skills and talents I discovered within myself were those of problem-solving, learning how to identify my plants and flowers by touch, and to tactilely find and remove weeds and other infiltrations in the flower beds. The townsfolk were incredibly supportive of me, and at one point, one of the town councilors-joked, "Bob gets more newspaper time than the entire town government!" Nonetheless, I was downsized from this position in 2013, resulting in even more articles in the local papers. Luckily, in 2015, a public housing corporation hired me to do gardening for two local Seniors' residences, which I performed until 2017. Despite my virtual blindness, despite the years of cruelty I experienced in my marriage, I emerged strong, both physically and emotionally healthy, and most of all, incredibly grateful."

" My name is Sunila Wati and I have been married for 15 years. I have a sighted husband. In public, wherever we are together for functions, people always assume that it must be so nice to have somebody sighted. But it works both ways. I do have very good organizational skills. Being blind for almost my entire life has taught me to be independent. For my own achievements and happiness.

We really have to communicate to each other. Making sure that I do not have unnecessary mishaps. We are there for each other in the rain or shine. We enjoy theatre, going out for dinners, walks and movies.

He brought the second cat just because she was beautiful, but later we found that she was sickly, and we had to put her down.

Just like any couples, we have our ups and downs. But main thing is communication. It does help. To tell you the fact, he forgets that I don't see. So that is why we have our misunderstandings.

He drives so we can go to the countryside. Also, we have taken a lot of vacations together. That is a bonus.

A person who is sighted and wants a partner must make sure that is the right reason to be in a relationship or else it won't work. You have a lot to compromise, give and take, just like any other relationships."