My One-Eyed Revelation About Aging
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: Change Your Habits, Change Your Life
By Cathleen A. Toomey

It’s not how old you are, it’s how you are old.
~Jules Renard

There’s an advantage to being virtually blind in one eye: You rarely get a glimpse of what you really look like in the mirror.

I had a dramatic eye surgery twenty years ago when my right eye was diagnosed with acute retinal necrosis (death of the eye). Luckily, I am near Boston, so I went into Mass Eye and Ear for a long emergency surgery. The eyeball was saved, but my lens was removed, so I can no longer focus that eye.

That surgery led to a string of other surgeries and continued inflammation of that eye. It’s been a long road for a fairly unusual eye complication, and I have had multiple intra-ocular injections and other surgeries.

As a result, there are many things that are more challenging for me: driving, especially at night, and seeing well in general. That’s why I don’t often look closely or carefully at my face. (Keep reading)