Through Our Eyes: Driven by Imagination

“There is nothing except for what my mind imagines.” – Kim Stanley.

On the west side of the Alphapointe building in Kansas City, Missouri, is the rehabilitation department. This department serves Alphapointe clients who are experiencing partial or complete vision loss — to teach them the skills they need to be independent and advocate for themselves.

In the center of this collection of offices and training rooms, you will come to a common area with low tables and soft chairs. I am sitting on one of the chairs transfixed by the story coming from the woman in front of me, who was sitting casually with her guide dog, three-year-old Lantern, who is sitting at her feet. Kim is telling me her story with the air of someone who is casually describing a small vacation they just took, or what they did over the long weekend.

Kim was raised in Lenexa, Kansas. She would remain in this area into young adulthood, during which she attended Kansas University, got married and had children. Over the course of roughly the next 30 years, Kim would live the life of a typical wife, mother and businesswoman.

Going Into Business

Kim started her own accounting firm, where she kept the books for several other small businesses. She would eventually be offered the position as the controller of a health care company, where she would remain for the next 17 years. Kim’s greatest passion was quilting, though, and when the health care company she worked for had sold, Kim went into business for herself once again … at age 55. This time she was designing and sewing quilts.

Over the next couple of years, Kim’s quilting business, Yellow Brick Road Quilting Studio, would prosper. She would upgrade her old quilting machine to a more modern computerized electronic machine, develop a website and a strong customer base, and then at age 57, she lost her sight.

“I noticed my vision diminishing, and within five days I was completely blind in one eye. Six months later, the other eye started doing the same thing and I knew I only had about five more days. Every day my vision was a black curtain that kept [lowering]. I went and saw my kids and my new grand baby, saw one of my quilts in a quilt festival, played cards with my sister, went down to the lake and had fun until I couldn’t see anymore,” she says.

Kim’s diagnosis is known as Nonarteritic Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy, (NAION) commonly referred to as an “eye stroke”, in which blood is cut off from the optic nerve. Kim’s doctor’s believe her condition was cause by undiagnosed sleep Apnea.

“It was very difficult to find out what the path was to rehabilitation, but after a some digging I found Alphapointe,” says Kim.

“Because of the skills I have learned at Alphapointe, I can continue on being Kim the business owner, Kim the ballroom dancer, and Kim the grandma.”

Kim was one of the first clients for Alphapointe’s new Orientation and Mobility instructor Alyssa Lurie. “I told her I wanted a guide dog,” she says. “As soon as I had lost my sight that became very important to me.”

Alyssa assisted Kim in filling out the application, and two years later Kim got the call that it was time to fly out to California and meet her dog. Now, Kim’s dog, Lantern, assists her throughout her everyday life, (including weekly outings with her five-year-old granddaughter). “Lantern has made it possible for me to be a very connected grandparent and make those memories. I can still do that.”

Kim has returned to Alphapointe as a client in order to hone her tech skills so that she can use GPS to navigate, as well as operate her website for her quilting business, (which she has now also added a wood turning element to as well). “Because of the skills I have learned at Alphapointe, I can continue on being Kim the business owner, Kim the ballroom dancer, and Kim the grandma.”

Even after 57 years of being able to see, Kim wasted no time in regaining control of her life and doing whatever had to be done to continue on with her passions. Nowadays you can find Kim doing her quilting, her wood turning, on adventures with her granddaughter, and even taking Lantern to ballroom dancing, proving that even without sight, there is still a life to lead.