Blind Childrens Center

4120 Marathon Street, Los Angeles, California 90029 (323)664-2153

A family-centered agency serving children with visual impairments

IN THIS REPORT...

Rex’s story Graduation speech

This speech was given at Graduation 2000 by Cathi Lewis. Her son, Rex, attended the Blind Childrens Center since he was five months old. The gratitude expressed by Cathi is extended on behalf of our entire Blind Childrens Center family.

"I remember the first day I walked through the doors of the Blind Childrens Center as though it were yesterday. And yet, it was over four and a half years ago, a lifetime ago, Rex’s lifetime.

"Rex was barely five months old at the time and the world as I’d known it had been shattered two weeks before in the space of an instant by a doctor’s blunt words. Your son is blind.

"Fortunately, the doctor had foresight in addition to bluntness. He suggested we might get some help at a place he described as "an oasis — the Blind Childrens Center." So we came here. Looking for what? I didn’t even know. I guess for a way out of the darkness and the confusion that the doctor’s words implied.

"In spite of my own state of mind that day, I immediately felt like I had stumbled on a truly unique and special place. A place that felt warm in spite of the icy terror I felt in my heart. A place that felt normal when suddenly the rest of the world felt surreal.

"And yet I had no way of knowing that day just how vital the role of this place would be in the adventure of a lifetime which had only just begun. And now, as Rex (and I) prepare to graduate, I’ve spent some time reflecting on our journey together, which began on that fateful day.

"I’ve been in a very emotional state once again, and I have to say that I find it a little ironic that when I arrived here I was crying and now, as Rex and I prepare to leave, I’m doing the same thing. But now I’m crying different tears. And when I thought about it in depth, I realized that the doctor’s description of the Center was right on the mark. An oasis — a green place of refuge in a desert. For me, the Center has become a place of nurturing. Here we’ve found a place where we could heal and grow. Here we’ve been prepared for this time when we would need to leave our shelter and go back out there in the world with the necessary tools not just to survive but to thrive. Yes, here the tears of despair have been transformed into tears of gratitude and hope for the future.

"Over the course of our time here at the Center, I’ve driven almost 100,000 miles from our home in Malibu to get him here to school. We’ve driven through El Nino storms when mudslides kept closing down the Pacific Coast Highway. We came to school the day the Malibu fires had our home all but surrounded. We made it to school the day when our condo complex had been turned into a gushing river of mud. Each day we drove like commandos through merciless LA traffic to get here. It was all worth it, a thousand times over, because each day we arrived here we felt good and we grew stronger. Each day here gave us that much more of a chance of being at a point where we could feel ready to leave when this fateful day would be upon us.

"And I know, deep in my heart, that it was as much for me as for Rex that we rarely missed a day. For, you see, those mudslides, storms, and fires were factual, but also served as symbols of the way I felt about the world outside the Center. It was scary and chaotic. We came here because this was our safe place, our oasis, where we were being allowed the time and understanding that enabled us to develop. And today, I no longer see the outside world as an unfriendly, stormy place.

"The Center has been our second home for most of Rex’s lifetime. From the receptionists and support staff, to the loving, caring teaching staff and specialists, and to the social services and administration, you have all been like family. Words cannot express the enormous debt of gratitude I feel in my heart for all of you. You met me with a broken heart. You saw me fearing for Rex’s (and my) survival. Through the darkest of days in Mommy and Me, you held my hand when I felt like a child myself. You provided Rex with an environment where he felt safe and loved and could grow and develop at his own special pace. Somehow, miraculously, with all the heady issues at hand, you showed me how to feel intense joy in the beauty of Rex’s baby and childhood years. To see the child Rex, to hear his laughter and to see how the similarities between him and other kids far outweigh the differences.

"You’ve shared my boundless joy as we’ve seen Rex opening up more and more to embrace the world. Thank you for giving him the time he needed, with love and care, to turn what could have been issues for a lifetime into distant oblique memories. Thank you for helping him beat the odds he faces each day.

"Thank you all for giving me the time I’ve needed to feel ready to leave the safety of the Center. Thank you for bringing me to a point of understanding and love which allows me to know now what awaits Rex and me out there is filled with promise and hope and beauty.

"How could I have possibly known on that first visit to the Center the difference you would make in our lives? Or how my own college education at Stanford would pale in comparison to the invaluable lessons in life and love that I would receive in my son’s pre-school? How could I have known how much brighter the light on the other side of darkness would be?

"Thank you all for bringing us through to that light. Thank you for being Rex’s and my teachers, guides, friends, family, and mentors. Thank you for starting us out on firm ground and heading us in the right direction on this journey of a lifetime which you began with us and which today enters a new promising phase. I don’t know where we would be today without you. Many thanks to the other parents for your daily examples of courage and love for your children. And to my own little hero and sweetheart, Rex. I want everyone here to know what I tell him everyday, ’I am so proud of you!’"