Not losing sight of optimism

Editor's note: On Mondays in March, the Desert Dispatch will profile inspiring women from the Barstow area. Readers nominated the women in their lives and, four were selected by the newsroom. This is the third person selected.

BARSTOW - Becoming legally blind has added more structure to Sally Pacheco's life but not much else has changed.

She starts her five-mile walk through Barstow at 6:25 a.m., finishes by 7:30 a.m. to walk her grandson to school and returns home to paint sculptures or work around the house.

She mostly maintains the same lifestyle since macular degeneration and Lupus robbed her of much of her eyesight 13 years ago, and though she can't drive or read anymore, she stays optimistic.

"I don't want people to feel sorry for me. I want them to say, ‘If she can do it I can do it too,'" she said. "It's about how you see life. You can have a disability, but you don't have to stay in that disability."

She credits her Christian faith and staying active for keeping her upbeat.

"There's nothing wrong with me. My vision isn't the greatest but I'm still me," she said. "God has been good to me. Blindness is not that bad. This is what I thought about a blind person: ‘They sit at home all day long in their rocking chair with nothing to do.' That's not my life."

Pacheco's daughter, Sharlotte Cordova, said that she is inspired by her mother's discipline, attitude, humility and perseverance through the adversity she's experienced.

"I realized no matter what life brings, you can get through it," Cordova said. "She still has her strong faith. Although things can be difficult, she's still confident."

In order to adjust to losing her sight, Pacheco attended classes for a year at the Foundation for the Junior Blind in Los Angeles. She learned how to read Braille and how to use a cane, but also had to relearn most basic tasks, like grasping a glass from the bottom instead of the top so that the liquids won't spill. Pacheco said she's confident in her independence and could live on her own if anything every happened to her family.

Some household chores like vacuuming or doing the dishes are hard. She cuts up her hands on the edges of pans and can't see objects left on the floor, but Pacheco manages.

Last year she took up painting when one day when she found her grandson's paint set in her backyard. Her husband brought her a ceramic garden sculpture of a cat, and Pacheco decided to give it a coat of brown paint. Although she got paint all over herself, she was happy how the sculpture turned out.

"At first, I didn't know what in the world I was doing and then I just started doing more and more and I've gotten better," she said. "I believe that everything physical at first was spiritual."

Pacheco said God guides her through the painting. She can see rough outlines and some colors, but not the details. She paints by feeling around the textured edges of the sculptures and uses a magnifying glass to apply final touches. The hardest part is filling in the eyebrows and facial details of the angels she paints, but Pacheco's attention to detail amazes her daughter.

"Doing the eyebrows is hard even for people who can see," Cordova said.

She was a little surprised and skeptical at first when her mother took up painting.

"I thought they were going to be all lines," she said. "First time, I saw her work, I couldn't believe how good it was."

Cordova said she's also impressed by her mother's discipline in her daily five-mile walk and exercise routine.

Pacheco walks for the exercise, the distraction and to have quiet time to praise God.

"I'm stuck at home all day long; I have to something for me," she said. "I want to be walking when I'm 100."

Accompanied by her seeing-eye dog Cherry, Pacheco walks quickly along her route, waving at people leaving for work and greeting the children on their way to school. Guide dogs are matched to their owners by their temperament, she said, and Cherry's attitude matches Pacheco's perfectly. When Cherry was being taught to be a guide dog, the trainer ran with Cherry several miles each day, a violation of the training rules. But Pacheco said having a fast guide dog suits her just fine.

"Normally you don't find a fast blind person but it's OK," she said. "I don't want a slow dog."

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4126 or jason_smith@link.freedom.com