To those of you fairly new on the list, this email will likely not make much
sense. To those that have been here forever, you will know of my journey
with my wife Debbie and I thought you would like to know the latest news.
Debbie's health has been up and down in the last few years but she continued
to improve. She was on dialysis, but that was going well. We had taken up
riding a tandem (2 seat) bicycle as her eyesight was too bad to ride her
bike. In the last year we rode over 9,000 miles and had great fun doing it.
Last Thursday we were involved in a very minor accident while riding the
tandem. A truck turned right on red without looking and hit us, knocking us
down. It was not a bad accident and we rode on and finished the day with
almost 40 miles.
What we didn't know is that the accident had broken a small blood vessel
deep in her brain. Even if we had known, there was nothing that could have
been done, so I will treasure that days ride. She slipped into a coma on
Friday and passed away peacefully at home early Monday morning in my arms.
After all she has been through over the last 20 years, it is so sad that
such a simple accident is what took her life. As most of you know, we have
two teenage daughters who are, of course, stunned, but will learn to go on,
as will I.
One positive is that Debbie has been involved in technology for the blind
for many years. She ran a very popular mailing list for the blind and has
spent many thousands of hours helping people all around the world with their
problems. You can't even imagine how hard it is to help someone that uses a
screen reader. Imagine using the computer today, all day, without ever
touching the mouse, with your eyes closed, with computer reading everything
to you. I let the people in the blind community know of her loss and have
received over 400 emails from around the world from people sharing how
Debbie had personally helped them with a problem and literally changed their
lives.
Sorry to intrude with a personal note, but there are many here that I
thought would want to know.
Tom Scales
tom@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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