We Were The Lucky Ones...

I can still remember standing at the teacher’s desk and learning to read braille from these really shiny plastic cards. I’ll apologise to any braille readers if you find this bit boring but I just wanted to give a brief explanation about how braille works. The whole braille system is made up of six dots. One, two and three down the left side and four, five and six down the right side and it's the shape of the dots that make up each letter. For example, dot one is a, dots one and four is c, dots two, four and five is j and so on. We have a lot of contractions and abbreviations in braille because it takes up so much room. My son was surprised when I told him Mockingjay is in seven volumes because in print it is only one small book of around 300 pages, so that will give you some idea of how much more space is needed for braille.

Two of my elder brothers were already at the boarding school when I started but as typical boys they didn't give me any attention. It was very hard as a four year old to be left with complete strangers and in those days the terms were as long as 14 weeks. Some of the kids went home at weekends or fortnightly but we only went home at the end of term. I remember crying at bedtime and being told not to be a baby but it was the first time I'd slept in a bed on my own and didn't understand why I was there.

I was in a dormitory of 8 and when they turned the lights out at 6.30pm I was terrified. But for the next nine years I received an excellent education and was a book worm from the age of five. My sighted siblings who were educated in mainstream school were poorly educated in comparison and missed out on some of the wonderful opportunities I and my brothers experienced.

I loved English, Maths and PE. We had wall bars, scramble nets, monkey bars and the ropes that hang from the ceiling both knotted and straight and all the kids used the equipment regardless of whether they had sight or not. We used to play pirates where we had to get around the gym without touching the floor, it was great fun.

The school was well equipped and we played with Lego, board games with braille markings, we had braille playing cards and did jigsaws; all the things kids should do. We played football and cricket and learned to swim. We had a bike track, swings, roundabouts, swings and a slide. I believe that it was because we just did all these things that I found it physically easy to adapt when I lost my sight completely. It's just a shame that some of the kids myself included were at times treated very badly because we came from poor backgrounds but I’ll save that for another day.

B x