Your Incredible Neighbors: Vision-impaired author shares trials, triumphs

If faced with serious vision problems that preclude driving a car, reading a book or even making out the settings on kitchen appliances, many of us might throw up our hands, unable to cope.

Green Valley resident Sondra S. Williams understands the situation from both a personal and professional standpoint. She worked in Colorado as a low-vision specialist for a decade and has had a form of macular degeneration for nearly 40 years.

For Williams, being partially blind is a frustration, but it also has provided her with opportunities to spread her wings and strengthen her faith in God.

She shares her story, including the breakup of her 44-year marriage, in a new book, “Journey up the Stairs: An Adventure in Faith.”

In the book, printed in March by PublishAmerica, Williams recounts her turmoil and lost dreams as well as the direction, peace, new goals and remarkable opportunities that have come her way.

She provides encouragement for the visually impaired, their families and those who work with them, along with others trying to cope with a loss.

Williams, 69, a mother of four and grandmother of seven, has been legally blind for 25 years. She was diagnosed at age 30 with macular degeneration and later learned she has a juvenile version of it, called Stargardt’s disease.

“It’s the same symptoms,” but the juvenile disease progresses more slowly, she explains.

Williams still has her peripheral vision, but cannot see things straight on.

“When I was raising my kids, I had no time to feel sorry for myself,” she says, recalling how she started out with reading glasses from the drug store, then her children and husband would read the mail to her, and she began getting “talking books” from the library.

Williams also got involved with the National Federation for the Blind and the Colorado Rehabilitation Center in Denver, learning about vision aids and coping techniques such as magnifiers, closed-circuit TV, talking clocks and more.

In 1984, at age 45, she had to give up driving, so she walked, rode a bicycle or had her teenage daughter take her on errands. She also paid a co-worker to drive her to and from her job.

After not working for 35 years because of her vision loss, Williams in 1993 became a low-vision specialist for the Rocky Mountain Eye Center in Canon City and Pueblo, Colo.

She held the position for 10 years and spoke at three national conventions, taught five-week courses for five years at Pueblo Community College and published five articles in her area of expertise.

Williams was able to retire six months before her 65th birthday and moved to Green Valley in October 2003 from Canon City.

To get around Green Valley, she calls upon her neighbors and her sister to drive her or she takes the local shuttle bus. A fellow member of her church congregation picks Williams up on her way to Sunday services and brings her home.

In 2007, Williams finished writing her book, something she began in 2001.

Her son David edited her manuscript and a photographer friend, Mary Petrie of Green Valley, took the picture of Williams that appears in the book and in its promotional materials, she points out.

“I know her from church. We were in Bible study together. In fact, she was a team leader,” Petrie says of Williams. “She did a really good job, and is a nice person and good friend.”

“I started ‘Journey up the Stairs’ seven years ago when I began to realize my faith had grown and some of the fantastic opportunities I have had,” Williams says.

The title, she explains, can be compared to a child climbing a flight of stairs and, when getting to the top, being surprised to see how far he or she had come.

“Journey up the Stairs: An Adventure in Faith,” is a 140-page, soft-cover book available at www.publishamerica.com, amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and locally at The Book Shop in the Green Valley Mall.

kwalenga@gvnews.com | 547-9739