I have been blind since birth, due to being born three months early.
I have had a lot of interesting experiences as a blind person,
although I'm pretty sure most of them are shared with others who are
blind. All blind people have been asked ridiculous questions,
helped when we didn't want it, or had people speak to us rather
loudly, apparently conflating blindness and deafness. But, none
of those are what this post is about.
I wanted to use this post to tell all of you about an event that
happened to me that I am very confident is not shared among all blind
people. This event does, however, have to do with my blindness.
It would not have happened had I not been blind. I once had a
faith-healer stalker. No, I'm not kidding. If you're
curious, read on.
So I used to work at a homeless shelter back when Luke and I lived in
Kansas City. It was a shelter for families and single women.
I was a case manager, which meant I had a certain number of families
or single women on my caseload. When they would arrive at the
shelter, I would meet with them and assess their situation. We
worked on getting needed resources and making a plan to move them
towards no longer being homeless. Needless to say, I saw many
different people and dealt with all kinds of situations. I did
not expect to become a faith healer's newfound purpose in life,
though. That one was quite a new thing for me (and for my boss as
well.)
I had a client come in who had been to our shelter many times
before. She was known for being loud and abrupt and at times
difficult to work with. She was also extremely vulgar in her
language and often participated in inappropriate joking. She
was only staying for two weeks, as a return client, so we went over
the required items and she left my office. I really don't
remember seeing her around much during her two-week stay.
When I reminded this lady, towards the end of her stay, that her
deadline to leave the shelter was approaching, she gave me the usual
runaround. After going through the reasons why she could not
stay longer and reminding her of her options for other shelters, she
left my office grumbling. This wasn't anything new and I didn't
think anything was unusual. Apparently, as I found out later,
she had quite the conversation with the shelter administrator.
I found out the next day, from my boss, that this woman had come to
talk with him about her stay. I assumed at first that she was
simply appealing to my boss to overrule me and grant an extension.
People understandably do that quite often. But no, this went a
different direction. She told him that she could not leave because
God had told her that it was her mission to heal me of my blindness.
Once she was allowed to fulfill this purpose, she would leave without
hesitation. She was completely serious and quite emphatic. She
insisted that, as she was part of a faith-healing charismatic church,
it was her responsibility to cure me.
I wish I could have been there just to see my boss's reaction. He was
a very composed man, so I am sure he held it together quite well.
He told her that she would have to leave that day, as it was her
deadline, but if she wanted to come back the next day and speak with
me privately, she was welcome to do that. I had to give her my
permission first. I am glad that I was given warning of what
this meeting was going to be about. I don't know that I would
have been able to keep my composure if that had been otherwise.
So, she came to my office and told me that she wanted to heal me.
Now, I will admit, there was a part of me that was tempted to let her
try, just to make a point. But instead, I explained that while
I believe God could heal, I also believe that there is a purpose in
my blindness. I believe that He uses all things to conform me
to the image of Christ and the fact that I am blind is not a negative
thing.
She was not satisfied with this, however. So I had to explain
my second reason why I was unwilling. Frankly, I didn't think
that she was the person God would use to accomplish this.
Naturally, she was offended. I explained that, in the time I
had known her, she had not acted in the least like one who knew
Christ. Her life did not at all reflect the faith she
professed. And I also had to point out that it was interesting
that she never brought up this quest until her deadline to leave the
shelter was approaching. I told her that, while I appreciated
her desire, I was not comfortable with her trying such a thing.
All things considered, she took it well and sullenly left my office
and the facility. I assumed that was the end of it and we all
had a laugh over the whole thing. I would chuckle to myself as
I pictured her jumping out of corners to faith heal me. Well,
it apparently wasn't so much of a joke.
A few days later, I was having dinner with some other employees when
we got a call from security. The same lady was there, backed up
by a group of other women, and they all had bibles. They were
asking to see me, insisting that I come out to the security booth.
Somehow my jokes of being ambushed now didn't seem quite so amusing.
Needless to say, I declined. I still found the whole thing
amusing, but a bit more disconcerting.
Not long after that, when I arrived at work, I was told about a crazy
situation. We often let people stay in the common room of the
shelter overnight when all the family rooms are filled. Well,
apparently, my faith healer had attempted to do just that. She
had a fake ID and had tried to get back into the building under a
different name! She was not trying to get a room, just a one-night
stay in overflow...you know, so she could be in the common area
waiting when a certain staff person got there in the morning.
It has been years since this incident and even now as I write it, I
am laughing to myself. The whole thing was just so bizarre and
crazy. It sounds like something that would be in a Lifetime
movie or something.
In case anyone is wondering, I didn't decide to write this post
because I had some amazing point in mind, or any broader point at
all, really. I honestly just thought it would be an unusual and
amusing story from my life that was worth sharing. I am happy
to say that I have not had a repeat of this type of experience.
I think one crazy stalker is enough for a lifetime.
