The Author and the Light

Mary Baidenmann loves to tell a good story. Oralee's Light is a work of fiction, but in the book she chronicles some of the challenges her own mother faced as a blind child growing up during the depression.

"My mother was my light - though she was blind. You would never guess she only saw bleary objects and recognized people she knew by their body movements and voices. She could learn anything once she set her mind to it. I remember the day doctors finally fixed her up with multifocal glasses. I was already thirteen years old. Mother's pure delight glowed. She could look through several tiny magnifying points by turning her eyes this way and that. Her 'good eye' could finally see to read with the help of the thick magnifying glass.

"Mother had to use her will to carve out a good life for herself and her brothers and sisters when she was young. Her relentless determination got them through many tough situations.

" I've tried to take her attitude as a way to live. She is my light."