In my dreams

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." -Maya Angelou


I'm driving on an unfamiliar road during the middle of the day.  The windows are rolled down and I can feel the warm summer breeze blowing across my face.  Abruptly something happens and I can no longer see where I am going.  Darkness has overcome my eyes and I am suddenly plunged into a black abyss. Terrified I cry out and try to  pull the car off the road and stop.  I can't see anything though and I panic.  I know I am going to crash but no matter how hard I try, I cannot seem to make my eyes work. I have somehow become blind.           

Suddenly, I am ripped from sleep and wake up drenched in sweat and breathing heavily.  It was a dream.  I wait for my sleepy eyes to adjust to the darkness and realize that I can ,in fact, see.  I have not suddenly been struck by blindness.  Only a dream. Vivid and unshakable yes, but a dream regardless. One that I was fortunately able to wake up from.  I would continue to have that dream frequently.  Until years later, when I was not able to wake up from that dream.  Except, it didn't happen to me.  I was not the one suddenly struck by blindness. My newborn daughter was...and it wasn't a dream.  It was reality.  My beautiful baby girl Oliana, had been born blind.