[Colorado-Talk] The Blind History Lady weighs in on COVID-19

Sat Mar 21 19:26:03 UTC 2020

Hi:

We only went to the post office on Thursday and that is about it.  Funny, we do not have the “I am bored” thing.  There is plenty to do here.  We have lots of old movies on DVD.  Today is a ham dinner at 2, pizza and  the original Batman movie at 7 for us.  

Peggy

From: Colorado-Talk <colorado-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Ann Cunningham via Colorado-Talk
Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2020 12:50 PM
To: NFB of Colorado Discussion List <colorado-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Ann Cunningham <ann at acunningham.com>
Subject: Re: [Colorado-Talk] The Blind History Lady weighs in on COVID-19

Thanks for sharing this story, Peggy. Just the lift I needed. I hope you and Curtis are doing well. 

Charlie and I haven’t left our house for days. Well actually I do go for walks. I think that is actually a no risk activity since I don’t come near anyone. 

I will be thing of you both. 

All best, Ann

303-887-1713

On Mar 21, 2020, at 11:35 AM, Peggy Chong via Colorado-Talk <colorado-talk at nfbnet.org <mailto:colorado-talk at nfbnet.org> > wrote:

The Blind History Lady weighs in on COVID-19.

These are strange times, but this is not new to our country.  A bit of a history lesson.  We may not remember the Flu epidemic on 1889-1890, the Asian Flu epidemic of 1957, the Hong Kong Flu of 1967, the Russian Flu of 1976, but we all have a memory of the H1N1 and others of the recent past. There is a flu epidemic almost every year somewhere around the world.    Just like spring floods, we seem to have that 100-year mark.  Today, we are experiencing the 100-year flu, COVID-19

Wikipedia describes the Spanish Flu (1918-1920) as originating in one of three countries China, United Kingdom or the United States.  Here is a summary of the effects of the flu during World War One, that had already demoralized many American.  

“The Spanish flu, also known as the 1918 flu pandemic, was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic. Lasting from January 1918 through December 1920, it infected 500 million people—about a quarter of the world's population. The death toll is estimated to have been anywhere from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest epidemics in human history.”

We have no where reached these numbers around the world yet.  We have front-line weapons to fight the COVID-19 they did not have back then such as indoor plumbing, Clorox Wipes, hand sanitizers and much more.  These will surely keep the numbers down and not exceed the 1918 pandemic.  

I have a story of a blind woman and the Spanish Flu, Fannie Opdyke to help us put these times into perspective and to realize that we are in control of our destiny even now.  We, the blind will triumph through these trying times and come out better for it, just like Fannie.

Fannie was born in New York in 1886.  She attended the New York School for the Blind in Batavia, learning among other skills, typing.  She graduated in 1908, moved to New York City and joined the Blind Women’s Club.

Fannie became a secretary at the law offices of attorney Catherine V. Curry.  Her duties included writing letters from a graphophone in the offices.  Her employer commended Fannie on how fast she picked up the graphophone and the accuracy of her work, noting that she was just as good, if not better than the other secretaries in her office.  Fannie could type accurately, 70 words a minute.  Through mapping out the forms, understanding how far to roll a form into the typewriter and how far to space over, Fannie was able to fill out the necessary legal forms without sighted assistance.

She also worked as a Typist/Dictaphone operator in New York City’s Condemnation Department in the City's court system, excelling at her work.  She was also quite adept at the six-key, shorthand machine used at that time by many secretaries.

As the Flu epidemic began, hitting New York City hard, Fannie and another blind girlfriend, Clara Barnum, about 10 years older, decided to take a huge risk and take the train to move to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they soon found typing jobs.  

Fannie took a job with the law offices of W.C. Reid, the attorney for the Atchison Topeka and the Santa Fe Railroads.  Her employer told the New York School for the blind that because of her skill, Fannie had a higher rate of pay than many of the secretaries in the office and soon became the lead secretary in the office, earning a salary of $90 a month.  

.  

Just as she had done in New York, Fannie reached out to join groups for the blind as there were no groups of the blind in New Mexico, but found that she was often ignored by the sighted society women when she tried to get the Friendship League for the Blind of Albuquerque to promote braille and to help provide canes to the adult blind of Albuquerque to become better and independent travelers.  Later, she did have an impact and was inspirational in some of the first braille classes in Albuquerque for blind adults.  

I take inspiration from Fannie and hope I can take a chance, try something outside of my comfort zone to make a difference during these difficult, but not impossible times.  

Looking at the statistics alone, we have a much better chance of not contracting COVID-19 than becoming ill.  Lets all challenge ourselves to be an active part of helping each other and our communities through the next months.  

_______________________________________________
Colorado-Talk mailing list
Colorado-Talk at nfbnet.org <mailto:Colorado-Talk at nfbnet.org> 
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/colorado-talk_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Colorado-Talk:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/colorado-talk_nfbnet.org/ann%40acunningham.com
List archives can be found at <http://www.nfbnet.org/pipermail/colorado-talk_nfbnet.org>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/colorado-talk_nfbnet.org/attachments/20200321/7f113dd3/attachment.html>