Check This Box If You Are Blind

Check This Box If You Are Blind is the story of one man's journey into blindness. Andy, 42, loves dogs, Dracula, vintage cars, unicorns, and Olivia Newton-John. He's sensitive. Stubborn. And blind. Andy disagrees about the blind part. His lost sight, he says, will be back any minute now. He has decided to pass as sighted until his vision returns. "Because my true self is my sighted self," he explains. But Andy's sight is fading fast. He's making more mistakes these days: at work, at home, losing things, bumping into things. He's putting his job, many friendships, and even his personal safety at risk. When is it wrong to talk someone you love out of a wish that can't come true? Susan Meyers is Andy's older sister and protector. She used to hold his fat little hand in hers every morning and walk him to school when they were small. She lives far away now, but she can't stop picturing Andy feeling for the smoothness of walls with his hands, for the suddenness of stairs with his feet. She's supposed to save her brother, to swoop in and perform some sort of rescue, right here, right now. But how? And she has questions. Why is blindness so frightening? What is her brother losing, exactly, and why can't he find a way to live without it? This is the wonderful, engaging story of a sister's struggle to protect her brother, a man who calls her his guardian angel but refuses to be guarded. Beautifully written and sensitively told, it takes up questions that brothers, sisters, and caregivers of all stripes must ask.