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Wilkes faces macular degeneration with determination
Works daily at The Blind Center in Washington
By KEVIN SCOTT CUTLER
Lifestyles & Features Editor
Emilie Wilkes of Washington hasn’t let a malady like macular degeneration get her down.
The medical condition, which usually affects the eyesight of senior citizens, causes loss of vision in the center of the visual field. The condition makes it difficult or impossible to read or recognize faces, but enough peripheral vision often remains so the patient can continue daily activities.
Wilkes said she noticed a change in her eyesight nearly eight years ago, which prompted her move from Georgia to Beaufort County, where her daughter Donna and son George now reside.
“After my husband died, I stayed in Georgia for three years before I moved up here in December of 2000,” Wilkes said. “I knew my eyes were going bad and I knew I needed to be near family.”
Wilkes continues to live alone, occupying an apartment in town. Her children make sure she has transportation for doctors’ appointments, church services and shopping expeditions. She does all her own laundry, cooking and cleaning, but the eye condition has necessitated a few changes in her routine.
“You take a lot of things for granted,” she said.
Remarking that she’s always been a “doer,” Wilkes said The Blind Center in Washington has given her a place to go and remain active.
“If not for The Blind Center I’d be sitting at home,” she said. “I’m not a walker ... if I do much walking, my legs start to hurt.”
Wilkes is the only client to spend time at the center on a daily basis, Monday through Friday. While she also weaves baskets and fashions chair seats, her primary “job” there is block printing the greeting cards sold in The Blind Center’s gift shop.
Dottie Walker, the center’s former director, created a series of printing blocks for every occasion — birthdays, sympathy, get well, thinking of you and all the major holidays, including Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine’s Day. Using those blocks, along with different colors of ink and folded paper stock, Wilkes devotes part of each day to keeping the inventory well-stocked. A work station has been set up for her at the center, complete with drying racks.
“The most I think I’ve done would be 90 cards at a time, but it’s usually around 30 or 40 at a time,” Wilkes said. “The cards are packaged after they’re dried for three or four days, and they’re sold in the shop with 2 cards and envelopes in each pack for $1.”
Wilkes said she’s been a client of the center for about six years and proudly claims she seldom misses a work day. She’s usually at the center from 9 a.m. to around 2:30 p.m., enjoying lunch there with the other clients and staff.
Despite problems with her eyesight, Wilkes said she does watch television from time to time. She’s especially partial to news programs.
“Politics are so fascinating,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve become very interested in the news media.”
Reading books and newspapers, however, is a bit more difficult.
“I have a video loop, a handheld magnifier, I put on written material and it throws it up on the TV screen,” Wilkes said. “It’s tiring since you have to hold it all the time. I’ll still read — like my Sunday School lessons, mail and bills — but it takes a longer time. That’s what it frustrating about this condition. Now I look at a page and I can only see a couple of words. It’s kind of a chore.”
Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Wilkes attended what was then West Chester Teacher’s College, now West Chester University. One of her grandsons just graduated from the school, she said with pride.
Wilkes and her husband George had four children, and today her grandchildren and great-grandchildren are scattered from Pennsylvania to Louisiana.
The Wilkes family relocated to North Carolina in the 1960s.
“We vacationed at Ocracoke for four summers, and after the fourth summer we heard the Island Inn was for sale. We joked about buying it,” she recalled. “We sold everything we had in Pennsylvania and moved to Ocracoke in 1966.”
They owned the inn until 1972, but after its sale they continued to live on the island. She worked, was active in the Ocracoke United Methodist Church and dabbled in community theater, appearing as the Mother Superior in a production of “The Sound of Music.”
They moved to Georgia in 1990, but Emilie Wilkes maintains ties with the island; her grandson Tyke, his wife and their two young children live there and husband George is buried in the community cemetery.
For more information about The Blind Center, visit its website: www.theblindcenter.org.
By KEVIN SCOTT CUTLER
Lifestyles & Features Editor
Emilie Wilkes of Washington hasn’t let a malady like macular degeneration get her down.
The medical condition, which usually affects the eyesight of senior citizens, causes loss of vision in the center of the visual field. The condition makes it difficult or impossible to read or recognize faces, but enough peripheral vision often remains so the patient can continue daily activities.
Wilkes said she noticed a change in her eyesight nearly eight years ago, which prompted her move from Georgia to Beaufort County, where her daughter Donna and son George now reside.
“After my husband died, I stayed in Georgia for three years before I moved up here in December of 2000,” Wilkes said. “I knew my eyes were going bad and I knew I needed to be near family.”
Wilkes continues to live alone, occupying an apartment in town. Her children make sure she has transportation for doctors’ appointments, church services and shopping expeditions. She does all her own laundry, cooking and cleaning, but the eye condition has necessitated a few changes in her routine.
“You take a lot of things for granted,” she said.
Remarking that she’s always been a “doer,” Wilkes said The Blind Center in Washington has given her a place to go and remain active.
“If not for The Blind Center I’d be sitting at home,” she said. “I’m not a walker ... if I do much walking, my legs start to hurt.”
Wilkes is the only client to spend time at the center on a daily basis, Monday through Friday. While she also weaves baskets and fashions chair seats, her primary “job” there is block printing the greeting cards sold in The Blind Center’s gift shop.
Dottie Walker, the center’s former director, created a series of printing blocks for every occasion — birthdays, sympathy, get well, thinking of you and all the major holidays, including Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine’s Day. Using those blocks, along with different colors of ink and folded paper stock, Wilkes devotes part of each day to keeping the inventory well-stocked. A work station has been set up for her at the center, complete with drying racks.
“The most I think I’ve done would be 90 cards at a time, but it’s usually around 30 or 40 at a time,” Wilkes said. “The cards are packaged after they’re dried for three or four days, and they’re sold in the shop with 2 cards and envelopes in each pack for $1.”
Wilkes said she’s been a client of the center for about six years and proudly claims she seldom misses a work day. She’s usually at the center from 9 a.m. to around 2:30 p.m., enjoying lunch there with the other clients and staff.
Despite problems with her eyesight, Wilkes said she does watch television from time to time. She’s especially partial to news programs.
“Politics are so fascinating,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve become very interested in the news media.”
Reading books and newspapers, however, is a bit more difficult.
“I have a video loop, a handheld magnifier, I put on written material and it throws it up on the TV screen,” Wilkes said. “It’s tiring since you have to hold it all the time. I’ll still read — like my Sunday School lessons, mail and bills — but it takes a longer time. That’s what it frustrating about this condition. Now I look at a page and I can only see a couple of words. It’s kind of a chore.”
Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Wilkes attended what was then West Chester Teacher’s College, now West Chester University. One of her grandsons just graduated from the school, she said with pride.
Wilkes and her husband George had four children, and today her grandchildren and great-grandchildren are scattered from Pennsylvania to Louisiana.
The Wilkes family relocated to North Carolina in the 1960s.
“We vacationed at Ocracoke for four summers, and after the fourth summer we heard the Island Inn was for sale. We joked about buying it,” she recalled. “We sold everything we had in Pennsylvania and moved to Ocracoke in 1966.”
They owned the inn until 1972, but after its sale they continued to live on the island. She worked, was active in the Ocracoke United Methodist Church and dabbled in community theater, appearing as the Mother Superior in a production of “The Sound of Music.”
They moved to Georgia in 1990, but Emilie Wilkes maintains ties with the island; her grandson Tyke, his wife and their two young children live there and husband George is buried in the community cemetery.
For more information about The Blind Center, visit its website: www.theblindcenter.org.
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