This is an account of a young lady that, through her courage has always been an inspiration to me. I forget her name but that detracts not from the story.
In the early seventies I lived in Ladysmith in KZN. In those days the double carriageway from Durban ended in Pietermaritzburg. From there to Ladysmith was a long, slow drive up to Nottingham Road, Mooi River, Estcourt, past Colenso and finally home.
I tell you this because I was enrolled on a public speaking course, just so that my brother-in-law had “company” every Tuesday night. The course was twelve Tuesday evenings from around 6pm. It was a mission to attend and the beginning I was not exactly the most enthusiastic of participants.
The first evening was a bit of an ice breaker with more talking from the course leader than us. For the first hour. Then each participant had to go to the front of the room and introduce themselves to the group.
In the front of the room sat a young lady, I guess in her late teens or early twenties. Not someone who would stand out in a crowd, except for the fact that she had a chaperone, a beautiful black Labrador.
She was blind.
She was the last to stand, and with the Labrador at her
side she faced us. Not a word could she utter. Just tears. Then she sat down. The following few weeks were much the same, except we did learn her name and that she was a switchboard operator for the provincial head office of a bank.
Every week we had homework and guess what, every week was another speech, using a newly learned technique from the previous week. Every week The Girl With The Dog struggled. She was improving, but it was for her a big uphill battle.
Finally, the last week arrived. Everyone made adequate enough closing speeches. Everyone except The Girl With The Dog. Again, she was last to speak, and what a speech she made.
First of all, she left her dog at her chair. She smiled, she laughed, and masterfully, she took us from laughter to tears and back to laughter, all the while we were in awe of the amazing transformation taking place right in front of us. Almost 50 years later and The Girl With The Dog still inspires.