Carolyn, 70, and her husband, Mike, are extraordinary older adults residing in Sharon, Pennsylvania and inspiring testaments to the resiliency of the human spirit. As a busy, working mother, her vision slowly started deteriorating over the years from a genetic eye condition she inherited, leaving her now legally blind. Her husband, Mike, has three Masters degrees and was thriving in a career he loved as a Behaviorist for troubled children, when one morning it was discovered that Mike had gotten shingles in his eyes and went completely blind 4 years ago.
After their lives were turned upside down by their visual impairments, things only got tougher when Mike and Carolyn were forced to sell their home. Carolyn suffered a heart attack and has had two surgeries on her spine, one of them ending in a complication that left her in a coma for a time. Despite tremendous hardships, Mike and Carolyn remain remarkably optimistic, caring, and kind. Carolyn shares that her computer had become their lifeline, “a window to the world,” as they order their groceries, buy clothes, and stay connected to family.
Nearly a year ago, Carolyn’s computer crashed and all of their family pictures, special letters she had written to each family member, and 10 children’s books that she had been slowly writing over the years, were all gone. Carolyn was not able to even speak about the loss of these priceless memories without crying.
On Thursday, December 7th, Carolyn and Mike were stunned to find out that Wish of a Lifetime, in close partnership with Resort2Kindness, not only were able to purchase Carolyn a new, large, touchscreen computer with customized accessories to fit their needs, but also successfully retrieved all of the family pictures, letters, and children’s books that had been lost when Carolyn’s old computer crashed.
With tears of joy, Carolyn candidly shared, “We have lost so much in our lives. Those pictures and things I wrote on the computer were all I had left. It means so much to me to get everything back. It is like a huge chunk of our lives have been returned.”
Photo credit: Christopher Padgett, First Blush Photography
Video credit: Aaron Hager, Available Light Photography
