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9/11 & the wonderful Guide dogs Part 1

Posted on by One Vision
2 men in dark long coats. 2 yellow Labradors on a lead with medals around their necks. In the background are skyscrapers
PICTURE DESCRIPTION 2 men in dark long coats. 2 yellow Labradors on a lead with medals around their necks. In the background are skyscrapers

On this day. The anniversary of 9/11. I wanted to write about the incredible story of both Roselle & Salty & their owners. These were 2 Beautiful yellow Labrador retrievers. Clever Guide dogs that helped their owners Michael Hingson & Omar Rivera to safety from different floors in Tower 1, the North Tower, on that day September 11th 2001.

Part 1 of 2

Roselles Story

Roselle was Michael’s 5th guide dog. Meeting her in 1999. Micheal has an eye condition called Retinopathy of Prematurity. This can occur in premature babies when blood vessels grow abnormally in the retina & cause loss of vision.

She was asleep on the 78th floor, where Micheal worked as a computer salesman, when the American Airlines 11 plane crashed into the Tower 15 floors above them.

Micheal called his wife, Karen, and then made sure his staff evacuated.

Because this had just happened, Micheals wife couldn’t say what had happened as nothing was on the news yet.

Despite the panic, confusion, darkness & sheer seriousness of the situation. Roselle led Micheal & 30 other people to safety that day. Down 1,463 steps. Despite the noise & horror all around them all.

This wonderful dog even stopped half way down to greet a firefighter heading up the stairs to rescue people further up.

The journey took just over an hour & when outside, Tower 2 had started to collapse. Even through they were being hit by numerous bits of building, rubbish, vast amounts of toxic dust, Roselle stayed focused enough to get Micheal to a underground subway, where they met & helped a lady who had been blinded by debris that day.

After this, Micheal went on to work in public relations for the Guide Dogs for the Blind appearing on television and parades with Roselle by his side.

In 2004. immune-mediated thrombocytopenia, which is your own platelets in your body attacking each other, was discovered to be the cause of Roselle being ill.

In 2007, due to kidney damage from the medication, she was retired from guiding and stayed with Michael as a companion.

In 2011. Micheal noticed something wasn’t right & took her to the vets.

Part 2 next post

PICTURE DESCRIPTION 2 men in dark long coats. 2 yellow Labradors on a lead with medals around their necks. In the background are skyscrapers

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Paralympics in Paris

Posted on by One Vision
with the stadium in the background and a union jack behind the 4 Paralympians in the team. 2 men, Jonnie and Zac, with arms around each other smiling. Blonde woman, Ali, slightly crouching down smiling. Blonde woman Sammi sat in her racing wheelchair smiling whilst holding the flag
PICTURE DESCRIPTION with the stadium in the background and a union jack behind the 4 Paralympians in the team. 2 men, Jonnie and Zac, with arms around each other smiling. Blonde woman, Ali,  slightly crouching down smiling. Blonde woman Sammi sat in her racing wheelchair smiling whilst holding the flag

Zac Shaw whom I’ve wrote about many times, has done our country and our Stargardt’s Disease community proud at the Paralympics in Paris.

Showing everyone what you CAN do!

He has won

An individual Bronze medal in the T12 Mens 100m race.

The T12 category is for athletes with visual impairment. Athletes in this category will generally have some residual sight, the ability to recognise the shape of a hand at a distance of 2 metres and the ability to perceive clearly will be no more than 2/60. T12 athletes can run with guides also.

A Silver medal in the 4 x 100m mixed relay team which includes Jonnie Peacock, Ali Smith and Sammi Kinghorn.

They also achieved a European record of 46.01 seconds.


Photo credit British Athletics

Posted in Glasses

More new glasses

Posted on by One Vision
2 pairs of glasses framed like a Polaroid photograph. First pair is red black with Tortoishell at the bottom. Second pair a multicoloured paint splatter effect.
PICTURE DESCRIPTION 2 pairs of glasses framed like a Polaroid photograph.  First pair is red black with Tortoishell at the bottom. Second pair a multicoloured paint splatter effect.

2 new pairs of cats eye glasses and I’ve gone a bit different to my usual standard tortoishell.

I’ve gone bolder and now have 4 pairs of glasses to add to my collection, so I can chop and change until I need another prescription like I usually do at my next appointment.

I tried something different.  I bought them online choosing the frames first and then entering my last prescription into the form they have. They are really good and alot cheaper than the high Street. The styles are more unusual and these came safely all the way from America.

My glasses are very important to me as they correct some blur and help me to read and look at pictures better than I can normally. It’s virtually impossible now to make words or images out, without them.

They don’t help the blind spot, floaters or missing  parts of words and  images. They will help until they don’t anymore.

So here’s to jazzy glasses while I can have them.