CREDOS: Gift of love — I

The passengers on the bus watched sympathetically as the attractive young woman with the white cane made her way carefully up the steps.

She paid the driver and,

using her hands to feel the location of the seats, walked down the aisle and found the seat he'd told her

was empty. Then she settled in, placed her briefcase

on her lap and rested her cane against her leg. It had been a year since Susan, thirty-four, became blind.

Due to a medical misdiagnosis she had been rendered sightless, and she

was suddenly thrown into

a world of darkness, anger, frustration and self-pity. Once a fiercely independent woman, Susan now felt

condemned by this terrible twist of fate to become a powerless, helpless burden on everyone around

her. "How could this have happened to me?" she would plead, her heart knotted with anger. She knew the painful truth

that her sight was never

going to return. A cloud of depression hung over Susan's once optimistic spirit. Just getting through each day was an exercise in frustration and exhaustion. And all she had to cling to was her husband Mark.

Mark was an Air Force officer and he loved Susan with all of his heart. When she first lost her sight, he watched her sink into despair and was determined to help his wife gain the strength and confidence she needed to become independent again. Mark's military background had trained him well to deal with sensitive situations, and yet he knew this was the most difficult battle he would ever face. Finally, Susan felt ready to return to her job, but how would she get there? She used to take the bus, but was now too frightened to get around the city by herself. Mark volunteered to drive her to work each day, even though they worked at opposite ends of the city.