blind-man-ricky on the Orange Mound

I had a scheduled doctors appointment due to a request to change my Ambien and general check up issues. My doctors office is in a "less than fortunate" part of town, on Park, close to Getwell where the Memphis Gay Chamber of Commerce recently discussed "removing the riff-raff from the area"... HUH? I wanted to extend my hand in the air and say "huh, please repeat"!!!!!! Riff Raff?? That is such a CODE WORD for/from whitey refering to black and other-than white non-owning tenants anywhere around. Riff Raff? Is it 2009 or 1969?

As I ws driving down Park I noticed out of the corner of my eye this middle aged black man walking with a cane and using it in a manner as if he had some eyesight handicaps and didn't think much else about it until...

..."wooosshh, kabam" the front door to the doctors office slung open and there he was slumbering straight ahead into the corner walls in a part of the front office where nothing was, other than paneling and saying "hello everyone, it's a beautiful day ain't it!" I honestly had to put myself in check becasue I almost laughed. This guy had walked straight into the corner where two walls meet but it quickly dawned on me "he's really blind." I arose and said this way sir, took his arm and led him to the receptionist window and I returned to my seat and magazine.

A few minutes later the blind man finished with checking in and turned around and said "where's my new friend?" I replied "here sir" and before I could say anything else he had sat down beside me and asked if I minded if he joined me.

"Ricky's my name, blind man Ricky some call me" and stuck out his hand. We began talking about me seeing him walking on my way to the doctor's office, if the city provided special transportation services, if he was from Memphis, family close by, young "skiddles" as he called young people - "skiddle" meaning stupid kid - how blind he was, his government assistance, etc.

Ricky grew up close by and said he had not been out of the house in the last month because it had been so hot. He told me about trips to the Pink Palace, botanical gardens, the zoo, and described the splendor of the beautiful geese in flight around the ponds, the huge pine trees, and all the flowers. I at this point assumed he was partially blind and asked him about his sight. Blind man Ricky leaned his head back and gently put two fingers in his right eye and removed this thin piece of "something" that looked like an abbreviated eye, that had been "looking" at me a few minutes earlier in his eye socket, and said: "I lost this one in 82'" and then did the same thing to the one on the left and said "and I lost this one in 02'...glaucoma...I have diabetes...that's why I am here today becasue my legs is hurting me bad." He pulled up his pants and had these huge baseball to softball size lumps (two or three) at the bottom of both lages shortly above his ankles. I honestly thought to myself "HEALTHCARE REFORM - 20 YEARS OF LIES and this man will probably lose his legs due to poor healthcare in the next few years". First his eyes then his legs. A whole new approach to ethnic cleansing! I have no right to feel any self-pity!

His walking cane was a golf club with the "head" broken off and I asked him why he didn't use a regular walking cane for sight. He said he'd been through so many in the last year it ws just easier to buy the golf clubs at the goodwill. He was blind, very blind. Said he got $65 on the 13th and another $450 on the 31st of every month, lived in a subsidized apartment, lost too many canes to the "skiddles" who would grab them from his hands while walking, explained how he bought groceries. The truth was that his insurance would not pay for any more canes because of all the ones he'd lost to the cruel little delinquents.

I asked him if he got depressed when he lost his second eye and he said yes. Said he stayed on the couch for almost a year. Said he couldn't stand not seeing the sun, frogs in the road, birds on the wire, "skiddles" chasing the ball, grass, his food, his mama's face...on and on. I almost had to get up. Then my overly maternal doctor Sudha came for me. I told Ricky if he was still there when I got out I would "holler" at him.

Soon after entering the patient-examintaion-room, Ricky was taken to one of the rooms also. The entire time I sat there I could hear his voice across the office carrying on with the nurse, laughing, telling her she was beautiful, talking about how nice the day was, and how sweet the staff were in the office. He never complained...

When the doctor finished with me I asked a nurse (she was Indian as my doctor is and had fraternal twins whose birthday was the same as mine, July 25th but considerably younger - she said "the girl has the devil in her sometimes and the boy is as sweet as Buddha") in the front office if Ricky was still there becasue I had not heard his voice in a while...the office was full, maybe fifteen people. Ricky came slumbering (once again) from around the corner slinging his cane with a tourniquet still on his arm saying "I am here Mr. Steve, where are you?" This time I laughed and then he started doing the same and our overly maternal doctor Sudha grabbed his arm and told him "don't be so stupid and get back in the lab room to get the blood drawn." He laughed more and said "it hurts."

I waited on Ricky and gave him a ride home. He lived on Spottswood in a part of Memphis I never had seen and never really thought I would, around Semmes and South Greer, this is rough Memphis - Hustle And Flow type Memphis - in the heart of what is called Orange Mound. He could tell where we were in the car within 50 feet. Said he can sense everything by memory and was glad "I could see for the first years of my life." Ricky said he still goes to the lake at the botanical gardens, can hear birds chirping, can hear the "skiddles ball when they kick it...but I can't touch my mama's face no more...I see it in my head but it ain't the same." Ricky had guided me into the small complex where he lived, odd setting, kind of like "quad-plexes" or something, brick, pine woods to the north and seemingly quiet. Then I heard the train and realized his $150 a month government subsidized apartment was literally a couple hundred yards south of the freaking Memphis Country Club. Blind man Ricky put his hand out and said he hoped to see me again at the doctors office, laughed, and said "you know what I mean new friend". I told him that tomorrow was my birthday and meeting him was the best brithday present I could have received. As he stepped out of the car he turned toward me and said he wished he had some birthday cake for me and told me to have a nice day and said "welcome to Orange Mound brother."