Forging a New Life at Braille Institute

In his 61 years, Jacques Voelzke has traveled the world as an intelligence officer, driven around the country selling parts to the aerospace industry and danced professionally in a Chicago club.

Of all the lessons he had learned, none had prepared him for blindness. When he lost his sight two years ago, the Costa Mesa resident, in tears, turned to his only child for help.

“He was very upset,” said Jacques Voelzke Jr., 33, who lives in Portland, Ore. “He called me in panic.”

But as an executive at a logging company, with a wife and a brother-in-law with Down’s syndrome, Jacques Voelzke Jr. didn’t want his father to become dependent on him.

The younger Voelzke, who volunteers with disabled people, had heard about the Braille Institute in Anaheim from one of the people he helps. A week later, he enrolled his father in classes there, and the older man learned to cope with sightlessness. He was taught to do the things that sighted people do without thinking--to wash his clothes, to comb his hair, to take a shower and to cook. He was also able to share his experiences with other blind people.

“It’s a place to step forward from the darkness,” the elder Voelzke said. “They were phenomenally patient with us.”

This summer, the Braille Institute is targeting baby boomers with parents who are losing their sight to show them their mothers and fathers can keep their independence. A free information kit and tutorial outlines ways in which baby boomers can turn a parent who is completely dependent on them to one who can live alone. Children can also get advice on how to detect blindness in parents who may not want to admit it.

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In the United States, nearly 25% of the 22.4 million baby boomer households are caring for an older person, according to a survey conducted by the American Society on Aging.

At the Braille Institute, roughly half the elderly pupils moved in with their children after they became blind. Baby boomers sometimes feel overwhelmed caring for their parents, said Julie Fosselman, spokeswoman for the institute. The self-reliance classes at the Braille Institute can make it easier to decide whether blind parents should stay on their own.

Voelzke’s experience is a success story that is not uncommon at the institute, Fosselman said.

Ten days after his father went blind from macular degeneration, the younger Voelzke returned to Oregon, leaving his father to fend for himself. “You feel guilty, you feel sad,” he said. “You think you’re a pretty crappy kid if you take a needy parent and tell them to go figure it out on their own.”

When Jacques Voelzke Jr. visited his father three weeks ago, he was amazed at the transformation he had undergone in the two years since he had last seen him. From being scared and helpless, the older man had become independent.

“He has a talking microwave,” the son said. “They taught him how to wrap his money, and how to do grocery shopping, label his medicine with rubber bands. . . .”

Jacques Voelzke Jr. believes that “to teach my father to rely on himself [is] the best gift I’ve given him.”