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

[Richard Payne]

Dayton

_____________________________________________
From: Ohio-Talk On Behalf Of Cheryl Fischer via Ohio-Talk
Sent: Sunday, February 23, 2020 9:46 AM
To: 'NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List' <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: c16a19f at sbcglobal.net
Subject: Re: [Ohio-Talk] This is someone I just met read on.


I look forward to meeting Piper at our State convention this Fall. What part
of the State is she from, Richard?


_____________________________________________
From: Ohio-Talk <ohio-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Richard Payne
via Ohio-Talk
Sent: Sunday, February 23, 2020 7:03 AM
To: 'NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List' <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Richard Payne <rchpay7 at gmail.com>
Subject: [Ohio-Talk] This is someone I just met read on.


	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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