I’m sure you know the old adage: “In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king.”

Recently I have come to fully appreciate that saying, because I have lost sight in my right eye. I had a rare stroke in that eye. There was no pain, no paralysis, no slurring of speech. At chorus practice I reached for the next piece of music and a “shade” came down over my right eye.

A trip to the ER followed, but they could offer no help. The one ophthalmologist on the coast, Kevin Miller, couldn’t see me until the morning. By then the damage had been done.

My friends, my priest, and the pastor and the church where I sing prayed for me. I prayed to St. Lucy, the patron of eye disorders. She was martyred by having her eyes gouged out. At least I have one good eye left.

Now came the challenge, to give up, or to search for a new way to lead my life. I had to figure out how to safely drive my car. I had to learn to not always trust what I saw. That came home to me in spades when I went to pour a bottle of beer into my glass and wound up pouring it on the table instead. Folks with the three-dimensional sight of two eyes would never have made that mistake.

Unfortunately, my defunct eye is still sending signals to my brain, and they affect the vision of my good eye. My brain has to learn to disregard all “images” coming from the “dead” eye, but that could take up to a year.

So, not being cut out to advertise Hathaway shirts I opted not to wear an eye patch, although I did buy one as part of my Halloween costume. I use an eye cover at times, but it begs the question “what happened to you,” forcing me to explain it all over again. I have been fitted for an opaque contact, so if you see me with on brown eye and one black eye you’ll know that I have it in place.

Most importantly, in my quest for a “normal” life I have discovered that help is there for us “low vision” folks. My Kaiser ophthalmologist referred me to the Earle Baum Vision Center in Santa Rosa, where they have a wide choice of classes and sponsor groups in Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties.

The nearest group meets at the Walnut Village retirement community in Ukiah on the first Tuesday of each month.

I went to Ukiah on Nov. 1 and found it to be a very informative session with people who had a wide range of vision problems. They aren’t meeting in December, but in case anyone from on the Mendocino Coast would like to go in January, I can give you a ride. Send me an E-mail me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Meanwhile, if you, or a loved one has suffered vision loss please go online to www.earlebaum.org and take a look at the many programs the Baum Center offers.

One event held recently was “Tech Day,” when reps from companies that make vision-support equipment demonstrated them at the lovely farm that Earle Baum, who was totally blind, operated with his totally blind sister. They did so by having ropes strung to the barns etc. so they could tend the animals. An amazing feat!

Earle left the farm to the sight impaired community and it has flourished as a center for the vision-impaired. The spirit of Earle and his sister lives on in this special place.

Jim Culp lives in Little River, Calif.