This is Geri Taeckens from Seattle. I am a season 73-year-old lady.

The title of my origin story is "Blind Man's Bluff." It depicts my journey growing up losing vision. My first experience with blindness was at age five.

I had no problem seeing at that time, but I met a man who did. He was selling pencils on a corner in Flint, Michigan, where I lived at the time. My father put some coins in his tin can and handed me two pencils from his box. I was very confused. I asked my dad, "Why did you give me these pencils? We've got lots at home." My dad said to me, "Jerry, this man is blind. He can't work or do much of anything, So, we must help him by buying his pencils.”

Two years later, I was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa and learned I would eventually go blind. The first thing I thought about was that man on the corner, and I vowed this would not happen to me. Alas, I eventually lost all my vision by my mid-thirties. Their journey was long and hard, but I'm happy to say I was able to climb the rough terrain of Life's Mountain and finally discovered the blind man's bluff.

I came to truly know that the blind man was no one to be pitied, but someone to be admired. He did what he had to do to survive. He had to sit on that corner in all kinds of weather, being hit with pitying, shaming, comments, and yet he did what he had to do.

That man is my hero. He taught me life's not about what others think you are, but about who you truly are. Beautiful, precious beings climbing the mountain of life.