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My name is November Davies,
I was named that because I
born in November and we are a
long line of unusual women in
my family.
I'm forty two years old,
well, at least I will be forty
two in November.
I am a diabetic,
I've been a diabetic since I was
nine years old,
and by the time I hit my thirties,
after having a child,
and all the you know,
time lost, that goes through that,
Iů it was too little, too late.
The vision deteriorated
in my right eye first.
And I didn't notice it because
I could still see out of the left.
By the time I realized that I was
having some problems,
I was kissing a lot of corners,
and curbs, and I couldn't
make it through my Tim Hortons
drive through anymore without
hitting something.
I thought there might be a problem.
So I had an appointment,
a check up on a Tuesday
and everything was great.
By the following Monday,
I was having trouble seeing,
and by that Friday there
was nothing but gray when
I woke up that morning.
I just went into I don't know
if it was survival mode,
or what exactly you would call it.
I counted everything.
I counted steps,
I organized my clothes,
I had no idea how much more
I was going to have to
learn to adapt to.
Luckily, I had some previous,
prior knowledge, of CNIB so I
contacted them fairly soon.
And they came out and
set me on my way.
And I do have to say that CNIB
has saved my life and
given it back to me.
I called the CNIB and I explained
that I was losing my sight very quickly
and I did the application over
the phone and an intake worker
called me and she had asked how
I was adapting.
Two days later I had an
Orientation Mobility person at my
house teaching me how to use
my cane and how to safely get
across intersections and listen to the
traffic and orientate myself with east
and west and north and south.
Actually the day before that,
I had an Independent Living Skills
Specialist come into my home
and she taught me how to
use my knife safely and
she put the raised, the bumped tabs,
on my microwave,
my stove, my thermostat,
my, my, my washer and dryer.
They gave me the tools to
be independent again.
The CNIB provides a library service
and I can go online into the library
system and download the books
that I want immediately.
And you download an mp3 file
and then you can put it
on to what's called the Victor stream
or you can put it on to your computer,
you can put it on to an mp3 player,
you can put them on your phone
and my, the Victor stream is the size
of a, a small cordless telephone.
It fits into the purse so much better
than a full size book and I can clip
my stream on to my collar,
to my waistband. I can garden.
I can clean the house,
I can cook, I can do all of
these things that I couldn't do
with the book because you have
to have both hands
and you have to flip pages.
I've met some wonderful
people through the CNIB,
at the CNIB, and in general just
out and around.
People that really do appreciate
the fact that yes, I've lost
my sight, no, I'm not an idiot,
and that regard the fact
that I do go out and do the best
I can as something to be applauded.
There is life after blindness.