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Date: 5/10/2023
LONGMEADOW — Longmeadow resident Frances Kelly-Cohen knows firsthand that it can be lonely living without vision. Now, she has spearheaded a support group to help others in her position find community.
Kelly-Cohen developed macular degeneration several years ago. She said a 2012 surgery to lower the pressure in one eye left her without sight in that eye. The condition has drastically reduced her vision in the other eye, as well.
Kelly-Cohen is a snowbird who spends part of the year in Florida. While there, she discovered a support group for people with vision impairments. “It’s just so enlightening to sit around the table with people who are dealing with the same thing,” Kelly-Cohen said. She reached out to the Longmeadow Adult Community Center about starting a similar group.
Kelly-Cohen said the primary purpose of the low vision group is to provide community and support for people with vision impairments, whether they were born blind or lost their sight later in life. “When you’re blind, you can’t drive. You’re confined,” she said, adding that it is comforting “just to be with people.”
The other purpose of the group is to provide information resources. On May 8, Bill Hirsch of the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind spoke to the group about the use of magnifying devices and brought canes to show participants how they can help them navigate the world. At the following meeting on June 12, Dr. Richard Ely, who teaches the blind and visually impaired, will bring his guide dog and explain how they can help people with low vision.
At first, there were only a few people attending the monthly meetings, Kelly-Cohen said. Jean Maziarz, director of the Richard Salter Storrs Library, heard about the group and offered to help organize. Storrs Library Programming and Outreach Librarian Amanda Damon shares information about the group by word of mouth at various library programs. While Kelly-Cohen said the group is still in the building phase, Damon said people now come in from surrounding towns, such as Chicopee, Agawam and Enfield, sometimes by bus.
The meetings are every second Monday of the month from 1-3 p.m., although most meetings do not stretch the full two hours. Damon said many attendees gather in the small cafe area at the Adult Center and talk after the meetings.
“It’s fun and I think it’s working,” Kelly-Cohen said of the meetings. “It’s a very lonely life. We’d like to see everybody have somebody they can call or talk to when they get depressed about being blind,” she said.
Damon added, “They need to realize that they’re not alone.”
Kelly-Cohen said part of loneliness is living in a world in which people may not realize you have a disability. She said she often finds ways to identify herself as blind to others so that they understand if she bumps into them or otherwise has difficulty in environments created for sighted individuals.
“It’s a real eye opener,” Damon said of observing the world from the perspective of low-sighted people. “It’s terrifying, but it’s beautiful in a way.”