(I can't improve on that headline. But this isn't a tabloid, it's a column in The Orange County Register. For those of you offshore, Orange County, Calif. USA is noted in Wikipedia "for its affluence and political conservatism." Draw your own conclusions.)
Did dolphins answer blind woman's prayer?
BY DAVID WHITING
2010-10-22 12:33:05
There's a reason why some call faith a mystery. Mysterium fideiI, by definition, is something mortals can't quite grasp.
But for believers, the mystery of faith sometimes can be seen, even when the witness is blind.
It's Oct. 16 and Evelyn Drew and Lourdes Wagner are whispering excitedly as we sail the 43-foot "Mon Soleil" back toward Newport Harbor.
We're aboard courtesy of the annual Women's Ocean Racing Sailing Association's Sail for the Visually Impaired. Drew and Wagner, both visually impaired, have been on this sail eight times.
But there's something about their quiet chatter today that makes it clear this trip is different.
The word I hear them use is this: "God."
Captain Heinz Rose mans the helm. Assistant Ken Schoffstoll handles the sheets. Escort Doyle Shouse keeps an eye on things. It's a happy crew.
We've spent a good half-hour gliding through a massive pod of dolphins. Everyone has been to sea before, some hundreds of times. But none has ever seen so many dolphins, so close, for so long.
The elation is raised because it's shared. Wagner's blue shirt is emblazoned with a huge leaping dolphin. Her bracelet has silver and gold dolphins intertwined. Dolphins play on the barrette that holds her brown hair. Dolphins dangle from her ears.
"I prayed," Wagner quietly confesses to Drew.
•••
Wagner, 49, is completely blind in her left eye. With her right eye, she can see shapes around the periphery of what she's trying to see.
But it wasn't always that way.
Wagner, of Buena Park, was diagnosed with Type I diabetes when she was 7. She started losing her vision in her early 20s. After several years of dialysis, she had kidney transplants and, later, a pancreas transplant.
The new organs not only ended her diabetes, they seem to have stopped her loss of vision. Wagner is able to read – using a closed-circuit television to blow up letters to at least a half-inch.
Wagner's friend, Drew, was a professional photographer for 25 years. Proms, weddings, portraits. But Drew's love was shooting sports, especially drag racing. She loved the speed.
Nineteen years ago the Lakewood resident was in the darkroom and, suddenly, found that she could not see out of her right eye.
Doctors diagnosed a detached retina, telling her she was born with a retina weakness. Later, her left retina rapidly deteriorated too. And, for years, she has been able to see only a little light in one area of her left eye.
But being impaired doesn't define these women.
Their positive vision about life is so strong, it's contagious.
•••
It wasn't always so.
Initially after losing much of her sight, Drew was depressed. She loved being a photographer. And, today, there is still some frustration. For example, she was remarried three weeks ago, in Las Vegas, and she wishes she could see her wedding photos. Same for the pictures her grandchildren regularly draw.
But she shakes off those thoughts and laughs as she recounts how her grandkids run up to show their art, and she always tells them "That looks great."
"At least I have the memories," says the mother of a son and daughter, now in their 40s, without a trace of melancholy.
"I have to make the best of it and go forward."
And Drew does just that – in fast forward.
She uses voice software on her computer to Google, pay bills and e-mail. "Computers," she explains, "are the best thing that ever happened to blind people."
She belongs to three chapters of the Red Hat Society. She hosts dinner parties (Her best dish is chile relleno). She salsa and line dances at the Braille Institute in Anaheim.
And she giggles when she tells stories about being blind, like the time a whale watching crew member kept telling her to "look left," then "right," then "left."
How does she keep positive?
"Avoid people without a sense of humor."
Wagner's philosophy is similar. Married to a blind man who has Type I diabetes, she also dances and practices yoga. She has a brown belt in taekwondo.:
Oh, and one more thing: She is a member of the White Cane Marching Society and Precision Drill Team.
Tapping their canes in unison, Wagner and her teammates marched this year in the Rose Parade, at the La Habra Corn Festival, the Westminster Founders Day and Tustin Tiller Days.
"I stay pretty upbeat," she says with a chuckle.
•••
Wagner fell in love with dolphins after watching them on television and at Sea World. Her dream for years has been to see dolphins in the wild and, of course, very close, the only way she can make them out.
Every year, when this event rolls around, Wagner gets excited. She and Drew both love the combination of wind water and sail, but Wagner also desperately hopes for dolphins.
And, every year, there have been no dolphins.
So, this morning, Wagner dressed as she always does for the sail, which is hosted by American Legion Post 291. Dolphins galore.
And she wondered if today would be her day.
As Captain Rose guided the Mon Soleil out of Newport Harbor, Wagner said a silent prayer. It's something she takes very seriously and, she says, that she'd never done on previous sails.
"Please God," began the woman who grew up injecting herself every day with insulin just to stay alive.
Two miles off the coast of Laguna Beach, the Mon Soleil found dolphins. Hundreds.
Seeing one break the surface next to the boat, Wagner threw up her hands and cheered. More dolphins popped up next to the boat, close enough for Wagner to identify dorsal fins.
Tears crept out below Wagner's black sunglasses and rolled down her cheeks.
"I wanted it so bad," she shared with me later. "I really believe God made that happen."
For Wagner, it was the mystery of faith.
Contact the writer: dwhiting@ocregister.com Amazing people, hot topics, wild outdoors - get more from David Whiting
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