[Ohio-Talk] This is someone I just met read on.

[Eric Duffy]

Wow! Make sure she gets to the convention Mr. President.

Eric

> On Feb 23, 2020, at 7:02 AM, Richard Payne via Ohio-Talk <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> 	Dear Mr. Payne,
> 
> Hello! I apologize for taking a bit more time to write to you than I'd
> planned; but, this letter of introduction is no less important because of
> the delay. The additional time, in fact, gave me enough courage to write an
> introduction that's not simply superficial, but one with a bit of depth
> (although I can only hope it's not too long!).
> 
> My name, my nickname, is Piper. Piper was my mom's second-choice for my
> first name. My mom's first pick? Ashley. My legal name is Ashley Elizabeth
> Foster, and I do not feel like an Ashley. When my mom would say my name, it
> felt like mine. But, I'll never again in this life hear my name spoken in
> her voice as she passed away in December 2019 from brain cancer, and in the
> tones of anyone else, the name simply isn't the same. And so, the nickname
> first bestowed on me by my boyfriend - coincidentally the name of my rough
> Collie, who was the first dog I owned as an adult - has become far more
> comfortable to me than the name that appears on my bills and tax documents!
> So, I am far more Piper Foster than I am anyone else, and so I write this to
> you as Piper, myself.
> 
> I am an artist: I play guitar, piano, once played the violin (if you can
> call 8 years or so, "once"!); I paint, draw, and carve hiking sticks. My
> hiking sticks are something I never considered art until I was invited to
> show them at a downtown Dayton gallery this August at The Orphanage art
> gallery! My life is infused with a need to learn, a sort of requirement for
> creative growth, and a never-ending search for peace, love, acceptance,
> co-existence, and harmony. It's not that I don't enjoy a decent debate -
> it's that I believe each of us has far more in common than not, only most
> people seem to relish in the discrepancies in their superficialities, and
> too often, this leads to those surface-type traits become ingrained parts of
> their personalities and lives. There is such a beneficent potential which I
> believe humanity as a whole possesses; but, those who would rather seek
> power, wealth, and other self-serving ends somehow manage to eclipse the
> good in this world. 
> 
> I love animals for their honest. My dog doesn't lie...okay, well, he might
> tell me he hasn't eaten yet, when he actually has, but who can blame him?
> He's only the most handsome, smartest, kindest, sweetest Golden Retriever
> boy in the whole wide world, and that's hard work that would surely make
> ANYONE hungry! I love animals for their empathy. I love them for who they
> are and their willingness - their way - of only ever being who they truly
> are. They don't manipulate one another for bits of paper with dollar signs
> printed on them. I love studying their own methods of communication, their
> psychology, their training, their behavior, their temperament, and this
> particularly applies to dogs - it long has been a passion of mine. I
> remember sitting in the cubicle that was my office within the larger office
> when I was a research attorney. I recall as if yesterday 0feeling so empty
> with the assigned work, that - once compete - rather than attempt to achieve
> another promotion to a larger cubicle with a nameplate with a more
> impressive-sounding title, I would read books about animal training and
> psychology for hours. I studied everything I could find online, anything I
> could find at the local library; my interest, even then, particularly
> aligned with dogs who were trained to assist those with varying
> disabilities. The type of service dog who most interested me was the dog
> guide.
> 
> I was reading a book written in the 1980's about Leader Dogs for the Blind
> when my boss walked in one day. I didn't look at him as I replied to
> whatever his inquiry was, but I still wonder what he thought when he
> eventually cleaned out my cubicle for me and boxed the little cache of dog
> behavior and training materials I kept in my lower-left desk drawer. I wish
> he hadn't had to do that - but, it was 2009 and I was so sick I could no
> longer work. What was worse than that, I believe, was that I didn't know
> why. It wouldn't be until 2010 that I would find out that, despite a
> seemingly healthy appearance, a genetic deletion was quietly at work sending
> my cell growth awry, creating fatigue and subtle symptoms long before I felt
> any pain. I inherited a deletion in a portion of my genes called BRCA2 -
> and, this deletion prevented whatever it is that controls the growth of
> certain cells from doing its job, and in November of 2010, I learned I had
> Stage 3b, BRCA2+ Invasive Ductal Carcinoma - breast cancer which had already
> spread to the local lymph nodes of my arm. I was shocked, I went into
> denial. I was 30.
> 
> I underwent many type and rounds of chemotherapy, then surgery, then more
> chemotherapy and 7 weeks of intense radiation. I went through hormone
> treatments and in 2015, with a final surgery, I was finally finished with
> treatment. I am cancer-free, and have been since 2011, but the sort of
> aggressive cancer with which I once dealt was one which required throwing as
> many "things" at it as possible to prevent its recurrence. The toxins which
> destroyed the cancer cells so well also had an affinity for other types of
> destruction, and for me, this meant they attacked specific cells within my
> heart and my eyes, as well. I was left with permanent Cardiomyopathy,
> left-sided heart failure, and by 2016, the eye damage had begun with the
> development of bilateral, cortical cataracts, an adult onset of
> accommodation insufficiency, strabismus, the destruction of photoreceptor
> and other cells, and ultimately has left me classified among the legally
> blind. But, I'd rather lose some of my eyesight - or, for that matter, all
> of my eyesight - than have cancer. And, I beat the cancer. Some eye cells
> were little cost to pay for the privilege of being able to call myself a
> survivor of cancer.
> 
> Always, I've been fiercely independent, often to the point of excess, and
> sadly sometimes, unknowingly, to the detriment of those around me. When I
> was diagnosed with cancer, I refused to allow my mom to come to the
> oncologist's office with me - I wanted to do it myself. Somehow, it made it
> less real, because it was just me going to the office, going through
> treatment. If Mom had been along with me, it'd have had to be actually
> happening, and I couldn't face it. What I didn't realize at that time was
> how greatly I hurt her in my flawed decision-making; I can never make it up
> to her. But, I can learn from what I have done and change and change is what
> I hope I have done in the time since, learning to open myself up to be
> vulnerable, to face both the good and negative experiences of life.
> 
> The National Federation of the Blind National Convention is not something
> I'd even have dreamed of attending two or three years ago. I would have been
> too closed to go through the application process, too uncertain of my own
> motivations - I'd have felt selfish or foolish. But, I find the more I ask
> for help, the more strength I gain: it turns out I had that backward for
> most of my 39 years on this planet. I now know that not only am I capable of
> attending such a conference, but that part of that capacity comes from my
> relatively newfound ability to both seek and accept help and guidance. My
> independence is not compromised by the help of others; it's actually
> enhanced by it.
> 
> So, this is my letter of introduction, and I hope that it is along the lines
> of what you had in mind when we spoke on the phone. This is me, my thoughts
> and my life. If I can answer or elaborate on anything included here or not,
> I'm more than glad to do so. Like my guide dog, I'm an extrovert, except I
> don't occasionally break the rules of etiquette by flashing faux-sorrowful
> brown eyes at a passing stranger in search of an extra pet from them. Thank
> goodness! 
> 
> Thank you so much, Mr. Payne. I sincerely appreciate your time, your
> patience, and your consideration of me as an applicant for a scholarship or
> grant which would help me attend the NFB National Convention in 2020.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Piper Foster
> 
> Piper Foster, J.D.
> 
> 
> Richard Payne,  President
> National Federation of the Blind of Ohio
> 937/829/3368
> Rchpay7 at gmail.com
> The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
> characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
> expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
> between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
> blindness is not what holds you back
> 
> 
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