"How do you have three children without ever seeing them" PJ Madam
I hear her coming through the doorway.
The beat of a few footsteps instantly reveals a walk with its own rhythmical signature.
“Kathryn, what are you doing?”
It’s Beth talking to her daughter who’s just bounced into the kitchen.
“Mum, have you seen my songbook?” says Kathryn.
“I think you had it on the kitchen table then it got moved over there,” says Beth pointing.
There is nothing extraordinary about this conversation.
Except, no one would guess this 13 year old is talking to her blind mother.
To ask her whether she has ‘seen’ her songbook, takes me a moment to sink in.
This was typical of filming with the White family.
When I first met Beth, husband David, and children Kathryn 13, Samuel 10 and Matthew 8, I thought I’d have to tip toe around the obvious: that mum is completely blind and that her 3 gorgeous children are following in her footsteps.
But not so.
I was constantly surprised to learn that their blindness is far from taboo.
In fact, it’s celebrated as much as it’s treated as a known enemy.
At 39 years of age, Beth White has managed to give birth to 3 children, raise them, love them, and care for them – all in the dark.
“I was terrified,” said Beth.
“There was a very small part of me that was absolutely petrified of how I am going to cope.
“I knew I would and we did. We were it was fabulous”.
I ask her what it was like to have 3 children without ever seeing them.
“I suppose I haven’t seen their face but I’m here living a life with them, and I’m enjoying every minute of that and that’s what I take out of it,” Beth says.
“I hear them laugh, I listen to their stories, and that’s what’s special for me”.
It’s this attitude that makes Beth so special.
She doesn’t let her blindness define her or prevent her living a normal life.
She works as a massage therapist, is in training for triathlons, enjoys zip lining, skiing, sky diving and can navigate her way around the kitchen as good as any home chef.
Beth’s sense of smell is second to none and I’m quietly scared of just how well she can hear - everything.
It’s her attitude which makes her ‘see’ a whole lot more than anyone with sight.
Beth inherited a rare form of Retinitis Pigmentosa and doctors gave her a 50-50 chance of her condition being passed down to her children.
Fate was cruel. Just last year, all three children discovered they had mum’s gene.
There were tears, anger and a lot of sadness.
These kids know a treatment could be within reach, but they aren’t banking on it.
Instead they’re trying to do as much as they can to build a memory bank before they lose their sight forever.
They’re not taking the sight they have for granted.
Mum has shown them that life can and will go on if they run out of time.
Their attitude is that if mum can do it – so can they.
It’s why everyone in the White family flippantly asks mum if she has ‘seen’ lost items around the house.
I ask Beth “your daughter just asked you if you’d seen her songbook”.
“I know,” Beth giggles.
“They’re always asking the blind woman where things are.
“Strange thing is, most of the time I know where they are!”
It’s that answer which makes the White family so incredible.
