Navigating a New World: Meet Lydia

Lydia Luney has raised biological and adopted children, lived in a one-bedroom cabin in Oregon with her family of seven for two years, run daycare and cleaning businesses, and moved up and down the West Coast – all with vision loss that began at age 13. Now the grandmother of 10 is learning how to cross the street where she grew up.

Lydia does not have a name for the disorder that has caused her vision loss, but she knows it relates to hormones. She began losing vision when she hit puberty, and it decreased dramatically with each of her two pregnancies and menopause.

Growing up in Woodland, Lydia says she was fortunate to have a completely blind aide who helped her run in the Blind Olympics and obtain a closed-circuit television. From there, she continued to learn some adaptive technology until she gave birth to her first child.

“I just flowed with the vision loss, using the technology that was there,” Lydia said. “But when I became a mom, I stopped learning any new technology, so I never learned how to really use a computer. The last time I used one was when I played Oregon Trail at school.”

Lydia went on to have a second child and adopt three additional children. When her mother moved to Tillamook, Oregon – a decision made when her van broke down there – Lydia and her children went to visit and decided they wanted to move there. When she asked her husband, he said find a place for us to live, so her mother built them a cabin in her backyard.

“All seven of us in a big one-bedroom cabin with one bathroom,” Lydia said laughing. “We lived there for two years and I loved it; it was a beautiful experience. After that, when my boys would ask why we never went camping, I would remind them we camped for two years.”

Lydia ended up living in Tillamook, Oregon, for 27 years – a small town where she said people were always willing to help when she needed it, due to her vision loss.

“I was living in a town of about 5,000 people, and I was the only blind lady,” she said. “I never used a cane; I just relied on other people.”

She ran a daycare business with her daughter-in-law, which worked well until her daughter-in-law left to have her own babies, and Lydia no longer felt safe caring for toddlers without her.

After then working in adult care for a bit, Lydia no longer felt comfortable dispensing medications and left her job.

“I didn’t have all the technology I have now,” Lydia said. “If I had known there were so many tools, I probably could have continued in adult care.”

Instead, Lydia created a vacation home cleaning business.

“It turns out blind people clean really good,” Lydia said. “Most house cleaners can look at a list of items that the owner wants to be cleaned and can skip things if they look clean enough. But if you’re not sighted, you do it all, so you can’t fit in as many clients. It ended up not being worth what I was getting paid.”

Meanwhile, Lydia’s marriage ended and she began communicating with her high school sweetheart from Woodland. In 2023, she moved back to Woodland and married him. She assumed it would be easy to navigate the town since she grew up there – but not only had her vision decreased significantly, Woodland had grown substantially.

“I felt stuck,” Lydia said. “I was living right across from the main drag where I grew up, but suddenly I could no longer cross that street because it had gotten so busy. I was too proud to ask for help, so I made myself stuck. I had closed myself off, thinking there was so much I couldn’t do anymore – so many barriers and walls.”

She happened to be at the Woodland community center and discovered the Outta Sight support group created by our Senior IMPACT Project client and mentor, Lucinda Talkington. She began attending and learned more about Society for the Blind, but it took her a year to finally walk through our doors. The 53-year-old is now taking our Core classes, learning to use a white cane.

“I still have some vision, but I do the classes with learning shades on so I’m completely blind,” Lydia said. “In Woodland, my memory wants to go by what I think I used to be able to see, but my instructor is teaching me to learn from my cane and other senses, not my memory. I’m learning a whole new world out there.”

Lydia’s goal is to go back into the workforce, so she is working toward becoming a real estate agent, a job she says is flexible and meets her need to interact with people.

“I want a career that will financially stabilize me, my children and grandchildren,” Lydia said. “I want to be able to enjoy this beautiful life with some extra flavor in it. I don’t want to sit around when I can help people find their forever home.”

She is learning how to cook again – something she always loved – along with typing and braille, and she is surprised to look back and realize how much she relied on her children.

“Society has been a real blessing because it has enhanced my life in places where I felt stuck,” Lydia said. “My cane has given me back my mobility, self-esteem and confidence. Where I had put limits on myself, Society for the Blind has helped me break down those barriers – and I’ve only been here three months. It’s been wonderful realizing that I can still learn.”