SEVEN years ago, life was good for Oddessa Alexis Blair, especially as she looked forward each day to the birth of her bouncing baby boy. At five months pregnant, though, Oddessa developed hypertension that resulted in the sudden loss of her sight. She never got a chance to see her son. “I was pregnant with my second child when I got hypertension and the pressures swell the brain and damaged the optic nerve and I got blind,” she explained in an interview with the Chronicle recently.

Thirty-seven-year-old Oddessa grew up at Farm Village, East Bank Essequibo, a stone’s throw away from Parika. She was born to Alex and Clarine and has four siblings. She is the only blind person in the family.
Growing up, she attended Farm Nursery School, Meten-Meer-Zorg Primary and Zeeburg Secondary. She completed her education with passes in five subjects at the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) examinations.
She again wrote the CXC exams with the Guyana Society for the Blind and secured Grade Two passes in five subjects. The Government of Guyana subsequently granted her a scholarship to attend the University of Guyana. She is currently studying social work.

Darkness overnight

Oddessa worked as a sales clerk in the Stabroek Market for the first five months of her pregnancy. She decided to come off work when she started feeling unwell.
Three months later, Oddessa recalled how she went to bed quite fine one night but woke up the next day to find she could not see anything outside the window.
“I was like screaming. My mother took me to Leonora Hospital and the eye specialist gave me a referral letter to go to Georgetown Hospital. The eye specialist there told me that that was it. He did the test and everything in the eye was dead. I screamed to the top of my voice when he told me this. I actually caught the attention of everyone around. Everyone felt so sad because I was pregnant. They told me I couldn’t do that because my pressure would keep rising.”
Odessa further recalled how another doctor promised her that she would see after she gave birth to the baby. “After I did the cesarean section, I started screaming again because I realised that I still was not seeing. The doctor walked out of the room with tears because he knew he only told me that so that the pressure would go down.”
Ever since then, Oddessa has had to endure many challenges. “Getting from one place to the other is really challenging. The sighted ones don’t really look out for you, especially the drivers. They don’t care. They would see you with a cane…some are courteous but not all of them.” Another challenge has to do with the way others view Oddessa. “People see you differently; they think you cannot do anything. Persons would discriminate against you on the roadways, and so on.”

Hope is alive

Despite these challenges, though, Oddessa has maintained a positive attitude. “I wouldn’t say that life has gotten worse for me. It’s just different. When you are seeing is a different thing to when you are not. But I am happy still because I am alive and as long as there is life, there is hope.”

Caring family and friends look out for Oddessa and help her care for her financial needs. “I survive by faith. God provides for me. I don’t go even one day without. I don’t know where it’s coming from but for some reason, God just makes it come.”
Oddessa is also hopeful that she will be able to see her beloved son in the future. “I have faith in God that I will see again. My sight cannot be fixed by surgery or any medical procedure. The doctor said nothing is wrong with the eye; it’s the optic nerve that is totally damaged. There is no replacement for that. It cannot be replaced until it repairs itself or some miracle happens. I think it’s a possibility for it to repair itself because at one time I used to see glares and then it would go back and forth. One time I would see light and the next time I won’t see anything. At present I can see the glare from the light,” she said.
Oddessa hopes to be able to motivate others through her experiences by means of counselling. “I want them to know there is no limit to life. You can keep going on. I also want to get married some day and have a happy family. That’s my dream. Never put a limit to yourself. Just press on and things will get better and better every day. If you are in an abusive relationship, do not stay. Do not accept verbal, physical or any sort of abuse. Take good care of your eyes. It’s not a nice thing to be blind.”
Oddessa is mother to 18-year-old Rockell, and seven-year-old Daequan.

(By Telesha Ramnarine)