No sight in NYC

I'm walking home the other night and the picture you see above is exactly what I saw. It is a blind man walking in NYC. Now my first thought was probably your first thought: How the hell does he get around in New York City? I can see perfectly and I still have a hard time trying to keep myself from splattering all over a taxi cab windshield. Since I drank four beers right before this encounter I thought "I could ask him how he does this" but I just walked by him. And just as I was questioning how he was going to cross the street he says "sir could you help me across the street?". I turned around to see I was the only one around him. I said "sure" and he emphatically apologized for calling me sir.

I had to link my arm around his to help him cross. As we did he says "you know I may never need someone to do this again". "Oh really?" I reply. "Yes because I am getting stem cells from John Hopkins in three months." He has been visually impaired since 2 months old. He can distinguish light and dark and vaguely make out shapes. That is why he thought I was a guy. He could tell I had a baseball cap on but that's it (oh and I probably reeked of beer). And now he has the chance to see for the first time at the age of 62. So we talked some more about what that means to him and how he would gladly risk his life for the chance at gaining his sight. Wanna cry? Yeah I did too.

He lives a couple of doors down from me and I am truly excited for him. Where are the stem cells coming from? According to him, from is own body. Thank goodness for science!

One of my favorite parts of the conversation is a story that his friend sent him an email and the computer read it to him. He made his friend throw in some swear words just to hear the computer lady swear. And he called emails "computer letters".

I will keep you updated on any developments.