By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
Ortonville-Bill Holden has been without his sight since 1993, and he will be telling his story at 6:30 p.m., Oct. 25 at the Brandon Township Public Library 304 South St.
“I always think it is just misplaced for now, not lost,” said Holden. “I had diabetic retinopathy, which led to about a dozen lazer procedures, three detached retinas in each eye, half a dozen scalpel surgeries as well as numerous last ditch hopeful saving effort procedures.”
Holden has been married for 24 years and has two children, whom he has never actually seen.
“I try to deal with it as ‘normally’ as possible and I always think there isn’t anything I can’t do, except see,” he said “I can almost do anything anyone else can, I just have to approach it differently, to figure out a way to do it and it takes longer.”
Though it may be different, Holden has adjusted well to his life dealing with blindness and a slew of other health problems such as three organ transplants, skin cancer and diabetes.

“After the initial shock of realizing it, I guess I’d recommend having an open mind, be ready, willing and able to learn, develop a lot of patience, a sense of humor and just know frustration is inevitable, however, do not let blindness dominate your outlook on how to live life. That takes time though,” said Holden to those dealing with similar issues such as sight loss.
With October being blindness awareness month, Holden is hopeful that people will see him and others that have a disability as the same.
“Maybe just not to be so judgmental about someone that may be blind or for that matter, have any other difference that is out of the norm,” he said.”What I mean by that is just because an individual may be visually impaired/blind, hard of hearing, in a wheelchair, on crutches, missing a limb or whatever, try not to put me/them in a certain limitation category.”