Aly’s story — “It’s like I can see again and nothing’s different.”

“It’s like I can see again and nothing’s different.”

When Alysha stood up to tell her story at her October 2017 graduation, she was already in tears.

In less than a year, this mom of four young children had gone from fully sighted to being declared legally blind due to glaucoma. As you can imagine, it was terrifying, and it meant relearning so much about how to live her life. But Aly, a former concert violinist, knows all about perseverance.

As she explains, “I wanted to keep working when everyone was telling me, ‘You can’t do anything. You can’t go anywhere. It’s not safe.’ I said, ‘I’m going to do it all. I’m just going to do it differently.’ ”

And thanks to friends and supporters of Guiding Eyes for the Blind like you, Aly’s doing just that—paired with Clare, a yellow Labrador.

“Clare is the silver lining in a really dark cloud,” Aly says gratefully. “I never thought I would move again like I do with her. We fly—that’s what I call it. When we pick up the harness and fly, it’s like I can see again and nothing’s different.” And Guiding Eyes? “It’s the kindest place I’ve ever been.”

Back to the Blog section