Blind guest tells class she sees life's positives
BY JENNIFER AMATO
Staff Writer

JENNIFER AMATO Linda Newton, who has been blind since birth, explained how the Braille system works and how she relies on her Seeing Eye dog, Daisy, during a presentation at Linwood Middle School on Friday.

NORTH BRUNSWICK - Daisy lies on the floor, enjoying the time she can relax. Although she has a harness on, she doesn't seem to mind, as she feels safe and secure next to the chair. She looks like she is falling asleep, comfortable in her current surroundings.

But once Linda Newton makes a motion to stand up, Daisy follows right behind. The 8-year-old golden retriever-Labrador mix is a Seeing Eye dog, trained to follow Newton during her every move to protect her blind owner.

Newton spoke to a group of students at Linwood Middle School on Friday because Christina Rankin, a family friend, wrote a research report on Louis Braille and the Braille system of reading for the blind, as part of a combined social studies and language arts project.

Christina's mother, Debra Rankin, said that her daughter chose the topic because her grandmother is blind and because of her connection to Newton. Christina was not available for comment.

Newton said she was blind from birth. She and her twin brother were born prematurely at just 1.5 pounds, although her brother did not survive. Due to the lack of oxygen, which reached her retinas, her vision was effected. However, she said she is "glad to be alive."

"Being blind is not so bad; just be patient and don't be sad," she sang to the class in her voice trained for classical opera.

The 55-year-old said she credits her wonderful parents for her ability to succeed because they never held her back from anything she wanted to do. She rode a bicycle, roller-skated, jumped off the high dive, although without permission, learned to swim and participated in the marching band in high school. She took care of her house, although her father used to tease her that she made terrible coffee.

She said there were some rough moments, such as girls in middle school gossiping that she was faking her disability and her own difficulties when reading extensively in high school, although now she enjoys reading for pleasure. Yet despite her setbacks, she decided to follow through with her education: she became the first person in her family to go to college.

"That was a struggle but I convinced people I could do it," she said.

She sang and traveled around Europe and the U.S., teaching her musical style. She also worked for the National Endowment of the Arts. She followed the inspiring story of Braille himself, who had an accident at age 3 when he was playing in his father's workshop and poked his left eye with a stitching awl, a tool used to make holes.

Braille got an infection and was blind by age 6. He went to a school in Paris to learn how to read and write but he wasn't satisfied with the methods. He instead invented a system of six dots in different patterns that represent different numbers, letters and words.

At age 4, Newton began to learn Braille, and became proficient in writing by the third grade. Yet she also learned how to print with a pencil so that she could communicate with people who could not read Braille, and she is able to read raised letters of the alphabet.

In one of her classes during elementary school, an assignment required that all students be blindfolded to test their typing skills. Although Newton obviously didn't need her eyes to be covered, she asked to participate fully in the lesson.

"All the kids would get mad at me because I could type just as well blindfolded," she laughed.

During Ann Schmitt's social studies class, Newton showed her Braille stylus, the tool she uses to form her dots, and she made a card for every student with their name and a special message for them to decode.

During daily activities, the mother of five receives help from her sons and her husband, but maintains an independent lifestyle with the assistance of a guide dog. Her first one traveled to Europe with her and died of cancer at the age of 12; her second balanced some career with some family and returned to the family who trained her; and now Daisy deals a lot with familial and social situations. Guide dogs usually retire after eight to 10 years of service.

As a result, she can leave the house when she wants to, since in Jamesburg she lives close to the shopping areas. She sometimes gets nervous walking around, she said, because she relies on both Daisy and her other senses to guide her.

"They're trained to disobey you if you give the wrong command," she said of the skills of guide dogs. They are also taught to become accustomed to different family members because if Newton gets into an accident and the dog will only follow her commands, the dog will not respond.

With a positive attitude, she shared a funny story of how one time she left a note asking her family to help her with some chores, but when she came home, none were done. She realized later that out of 120 crayons sitting on the kitchen table, she had chosen to write with the white one.

She also told a distressing story of how one of her toddlers ran outside of the house, but she could not tell where he was in relation to the street.

"I tell people sometimes that being blind is a pain in the butt, but that's it. It's a nuisance sometimes; if I have to go shopping I can't just hop in a car and drive. I have to plan ahead," she said.

Yet she stressed to the students that a disability should never hinder your other abilities, and that you should never give up.

"You can be anything you want to be," she said.