My friend Michelle is blind, but you'd never know it. She makes such good use of her other senses, including her "sixth sense", that she rarely gives the impression that she's1anything. Michelle looks after her children pretty much like the rest of us 2 that she doesn't add too much pressure on them. She knows when to clean the house, and she moves around 3 fast that the strangers often don't realize she's blind.
I realized this the first time after my six-year-old daughter, Kayla, went to play there. When Kayla came home, she was very 4 about her day. She told me they had baked cookies, played games and did art projects. But she was especially excited about 5 finger-painting project.
"Mom, guess what？"said Kayla, all smiles. "I learned how to 6 colors today! For example, blue and red make purple, and yellow and blue make green! And Michelle worked with us. "To my great 7, my child had learned about color from a blind friend! Then Kayla continued, "Michelle told me my 8 showed joy, pride and a sense of success. She really 9 what I was doing!" Kayla said she had never known how interesting the finger- paints are 10 Michelle showed her how to paint without looking at her paper.
I realized Kayla didn't know that Michelle was blind. It had just never 11 in conversation. When I told my daughter that Michelle was blind, she was quiet for a moment. At first, she didn't believe me. "But Mommy, Michelle knew exactly 12 was in my picture!" Kayla insisted. And I knew my child was 13 because Michelle had listened to Kayla describe her art work. Michelle had also heard Kayla's 14 in her work excitedly.
We were silent for a minute. Then Kayla said slowly, "You know, Mommy, Michelle really did 'see' my picture. She just used my15."
