When Lieba Schwartz was 43,
a Boston opthamologist confirmed her worst fears:
She would soon be blind.
Lieba was born as Marcia Schwartz in 1940. Her parents moved around a lot in her childhood. Even as a kid, she sought spirituality. "Who is God? Where is God" she remembers asking her parents. "They said, 'We're Jewish. We don't believe in God,' so I assumed they meant that Jews didn't believe in God, not just that my parents didn't believe." [...]
According to Schwartz, her mother and grandmother had gone blind in their 60s. She doesn't know what caused it. When she was only 43, a Boston ophthalmologist confirmed her worst fears: She would soon be blind for the rest of her life. Six months later, the government required that she be examined by three experts before qualifying for disability insurance. They all agreed. "The condition was genetic and inoperable, they all concluded," she said, although she doesn't recall the exact diagnosis. [...]
OVER SEVEN years, her sight diminished. First she lost colors, then shapes and eventually saw only shadows. She began slipping on city curbs. She paid a blind man $10 an hour to teach her to use his cane. She says she accepted the diagnosis at face value ....
Out of the blue, in 1997, she received a phone call from her mother's cousin Frances Lubliner from New Jersey. "I don't know why I called her," Lubliner, a PhD psychologist told me. "I hadn't spoken to her for at least 20 years. I just had a strong feeling that I should. "Schwartz remembers that the phone conversation was mostly about eye problems. Like her, Lubliner had eye problems, hers from retinopathy due to her diabetes. "She had such a soft, sweet voice and I liked her immediately," said Schwartz. Lubliner ended the phone call with what was to Schwartz a cryptic parting: "Good Shabbos." Five minutes later, Schwartz called her back. "What was that expression you ended the phone call with?" Lubliner repeated "Good Shabbos."
Read the rest of this heart warming story at Going Blind, Then Jewish, and how this relates to "a statement in the Talmud" about right before Mashiach arrives.
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