Round-a-bout assistance

6/5/2022

Many acts of kindness in the community. How someone went in a round-a-bout way to help me.

What can I say people….?

Prior to getting my guide dog Bree, I used a white cane for about two years. A cane is far different to a guide dog. For starters, no s!@# to pick up. I will describe in a future blog how a blind man deals with picking up dog s!@#. A guide dog takes you round an obstacle, or they should. A cane identifies where obstacles are. It is a far more mentally straining exercise.

On an occasion, I was doing some shopping and I had come out of a shop near a round-a-bout. I stood there with my cane, trying to decide whether I wanted to return to the shop and purchase something. A car pulled up at the round-a-bout.

A middle-aged woman, well I can’t really see quite well but she sounded middle aged, called out to me “Oi, need a hand?”

Firstly, I couldn’t see if she was talking to me. Then she called out “You with the stick!” When I realized she was talking to me, she had jumped out of her car, walked over to me, grabbed my hand and frog-marched me across the other side of the round-a-bout.

She was very proud of herself and said “There you go mate. Now you can go where you want to go. Where ya off to?” I replied, “I was just trying to decide if I want to return to the shop I was in on the other side of the round-a-bout.”

The look I got, and I saw it, because she was close, looked like I had done a big fart. She grabbed my arm this time and dragged me back where I was originally on the other side of the round-a-bout, jumped in her car and sped off.

I have never heard a middle-aged woman swear so much in my life.

So, what did I learn?

For those of you wanting to assist someone who is visually impaired, we appreciate it, but often, you're creating more work for both of us. I won’t stand on the side of a round-a-bout looking like an idiot anymore.