Before my cataract surgery I had a few friends who’d had their eyes done. One peered at me over

the top of her granny eyeglasses and two others went without glasses at all.

They bragged they only needed “cheaters” to see close up, and said colors were sharper and more vivid than they’d ever seen.

I nodded and smiled, but knew they really

couldn’t really see, but Gloria said her husband had Dollar Store cheaters in every room.

Then the morning I removed the eye patch after cataract surgery, I reached for my glasses and put them on.

Everything was fuzzy.

It didn’t work.

Not even the lens implant could help my astigmatism.

I fumbled around, found the eye drops, took off my glasses, and put in the drops.

I blinked a few times, then it was a miracle.

I could see.

Really see.

Without my glasses.

Friends, family, and I still can’t get used to looking at my Little Orphan Annie eyes without my specs, and Gloria was right: I have readers everywhere. Well, everywhere except where I want them. When I do find them they are usually partying with a pair of pink or purple ones, colors I’d never worn before.

I’d had pop-bottle thick black, brown and even red eyeglasses for as long as I can remember.

There are black and white pictures of me at four years old wearing glasses. Some have me with an “excluder” (suctioned patch) over the right lens, which is my good eye.

Back then they thought if they covered up the good eye that it would make the weaker, or the “lazy eye,” get more strength.

Momma said each time they tried it my eyesight

got worse, so they quit

trying before I started kindergarten.

By the third or fourth grade I was called Four Eyes by children with good eyesight.

My left eye got much more lazy, and I was told I had Industrial Blindness by one

doctor, and others said later it’s because the brain doesn’t recognize images seen by the eye.

I can make out images when a doctor holds up two fingers close to my left eye, but for years haven’t been able to see the big E on eye charts with that eye. I still can’t and surgeons don’t want to try anything with my bad eye.

I never ever thought I’d be able to see without glasses, and even after a few months, I still can’t believe it.

During my check-up after cataract surgery, my Enid surgeon said I was “even legal to drive without glasses.”

“That’s good,” I said, “because I drove up here.”