EYE-LID SURGERY UNCERTAIN AND TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

March 24, 2013



By Olivene Godfrey

I have needed eye lid surgery for several years.  Finally, the excessive sagging skin on my lids were interfering with my vision.  My eye doctor thinks I need the surgery.  But, I'm not a wealthy woman and will only be able to have the surgery if Medicare pays for it.

So, last week, I was given a test in the eye doctor's office to determine if the surgery will improve my vision.  The eye doctor believes it will and so does the technician who gave me the test.  But, for some reason, I didn't do well on the test, and as Tam and I left the office, the surgery was uncertain.  The eye doctor's office should know in a few days if Medicare will pay for the surgery.  I am praying they will.  I'll let you know when I hear from them.

One recent day, I thought about the Packard, an American luxury automobile, last produced in 1958.  My daddy bought a used Packard in the mid 1940's.  I never mastered driving a straight shift car, to put it mildly.  We didn't have a car during World War II and daddy bought the Packard at a bargain.  I was 17 when I learned to drive, sort of, that is.  Somehow I got a driver's license which was easy to do back then.

One night I didn't have a date and was bored.  I asked mother if I could drive my younger twin sisters, and myself to downtown Dalton, which was a small town where young people strolled main street at night and others "dragged main" in their cars.  My parents were very strict about my dating with an 11 pm curfew.  But, for some reason, they were lax about other things, including my driving the family car.  That night, so long ago, my sisters and I drove to town.  All went well until I innocently drove the wrong way down a one way street.  The twins were screaming, and I was trying to manage the straight shift and praying not to meet a car until I reached Main Street.

Later, when my late husband and I were married, he tried to help me learn to drive his straight shift car and we winded up screaming at each other.  So, until a few years later when we bought an Oldsmobile with an automatic transmission did I master driving a car.  From that day on, I practically lived in cars over the years until I decided to quit driving several years ago.  I still miss driving but decided that I was no longer capable of being a safe driver.

See you next time.  (As told to Tam)