Focus: a Memoir by Ingrid Ricks

This is a short memoir detailing the author’s coming to grips with the discovery that she has Retinitis Pigmentosa, and is losing her sight.

At age 37, Ingrid Ricks was a journalist and marketing/PR specialist when she began to have trouble with her eyesight. She made an appointment with an ophthalmologist, and goes for her first-ever eye exam. By the end of the appointment, she has been told that she has a degenerative eye disease, and is already legally blind. She is also told that she can expect the disease to progress, and eventually will probably lose her remaining vision.

In this memoir, she details her 8-year journey to come to grips with this knowledge. At first, she is devastated with fear of losing her independence, of becoming a burden to her husband, and not being able to see her two young daughters grow up. But she finds her way through that despair, and now lives a life grounded in joy, hope and vision beyond eyesight.

 

96 pages