Operation Eyesight

I cleaned up Gloria's bedside table today.  I got through the birthday and Mother's Day cards the girls and the kids had sent her, and the Valentine's Day cards that I had sent her (and she'd kept), and various bits and pieces and trinkets okay, or so I thought.  Then I got to her glasses.

Gloria had very difficult and complex visual problems, and her glasses and lenses were always very expensive, and difficult to manufacture.  You can't just give glasses to somebody else, at least not that kind, with specialized eye problems to deal with.  Mine on the other hand, I get from the dollar store.  I only need readers.  I could give them to anybody else who is farsighted and only needs readers.

But there's Operation Eyesight.  Operation Eyesight collected glasses, diagnosed the lenses and vision problems that they would correct, and donated those glasses to people in third world countries who needed vision correction.  We both knew Dr. Ben Gullison, and Marilyn, and so I figured that I would look up who was collecting glasses for Operation Eyesight these days, and donate them there.

But it seems those days are over.  While Operation Eyesight still carries on valuable work, they no longer collect used eyeglasses.  So Gloria's glasses are, basically, garbage.

It wasn't until I got to that point that I started crying.  And had the worst grief burst that I'd had in a while.

I haven't been able to throw the glasses away yet.  I will.

But not today ...