A guide through the ‘moment of doubt’

Like any dog, Rascal loves his toys and his treats. However, the 6-year-old Labrador also gets excited to put on his harness and act as owner Brandy Wood’s eyes.

Wood, who lives near Inverness, has been blind since the age of 8. After a year of sickness, she woke up one morning and couldn’t see a thing. When she arrived at the hospital, doctors discovered a tumor that had damaged her optic nerve. The tumor never returned, but neither did her vision.

“But I had good parents. They didn’t let me pity party around. They got me in school, they learned how to do sighted guide, taught me to do my Braille, mobility, all that,” Wood said. “They picked me up real quick and told me to get over it. Worse things could happen.”

Rascal is Wood’s second guide dog, and they’ve been together for four years. He was raised in an Iowa prison as part of a program to pair inmates with future guide dog puppies, and trainers worked with him for several months before he met Wood. Even with the training, Wood said it can take six months to a year for a person and guide dog to communicate and work well as a pair.

For several years between her first guide dog and Rascal, Wood had relied on a cane to navigate her daily life. When she returned to college at Auburn University in 2010, however, she needed a companion.

“During the week I lived at Auburn by myself, so for the first year I was alone during the week. When I got Rascal, he was company, security [when] walking around by yourself,” Wood said. “When you’re walking around and you’re lost, it’s nice to have somebody who’s listening to you. Even though he’s not helping a whole lot, he’s listening to you.”

Rascal was by Wood’s side while she finished her degree and as she interned with the Birmingham Veterans Administration Medical Center as part of their blind rehabilitation services. Now that Wood works full time at the VA, Rascal is “semi-retired.” She said the cane is more convenient and Rascal would spend most of his time at the office just sitting and waiting.

At home, Rascal can play with his toys and two of Wood’s three daughters, who are students at Oak Mountain High and Middle School. He’s become another member of the family.

“I have two girls still at home. He loves them almost as much as he loves me, I think. They’re his babies. So he’s just a fun-loving dog,” Wood said. 

At the blind rehabilitation center, Wood teaches veterans adaptive skills to help them learn to live without vision. She shares knowledge on reading Braille, writing letters and using devices like iPhones, iPads, talking clocks and grocery barcode scanners. The rehab center also teaches home skills such as sewing buttons and cooking.

“We assist them and we’ll cook a meal or dishes in the crockpot, something on the stove or in the oven, which is hilarious because I don’t cook at home. My husband does all the cooking at home because I hate to cook,” Wood said.

When she first graduated high school, Wood wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. Having daughters of her own changed her mind, but Wood still loves sharing information with others. Working at the rehab center allows her to do that, though her students are much older.

There can be challenges in adapting to different patients’ learning abilities, but Wood said that being blind helps her to make an immediate connection.

“I think I maybe connect with some of my veterans because they come and they think, ‘Oh gosh, I can’t do what I used to do.’ Then they come and one of their instructors is totally blind,” Wood said. “They can do whatever they want to do. So that makes me feel good, that I can help them get through their moment of doubt.”

Every evening, Rascal is waiting in the driveway for Wood’s friends to drop her off from work. She said he gets excited every day, partly to see her and partly because he knows dinner is on the way. Except for driving, Wood said she doesn’t feel different from any other mother or wife.

“Of course you have to listen more and I think you pay a little bit more attention to what your kids are doing. But my kids don’t see it as any different than any of their friends that have sighted parents,” Wood said. “They learned at a young age that mom [can’t see]. When I say, ‘Let me see it,’ they put it in my hand.”

In some ways, Wood feels she has benefited from her blindness. She has traveled to Washington, D.C. with the National Federation of the Blind to advocate for handicap-accessible educational websites. She’s taken her family to NFB conferences in Orlando and to receive a scholarship in Dallas.

“It’s not so much what, I guess, I experience. It’s what my kids get to experience. It’s not every day that you go to a hotel and your kids are surrounded by 3,000 blind people,” Wood said. “It’s kind of cool to see that and the first time we went, in 2012, my youngest — she was maybe 10 — said, ‘Oh my gosh, Mom, the sighted people are outnumbered here.’”

“I think because I’ve been blind I’ve had some really good experiences,” Wood added. “I’ve gotten to do some things that most people don’t get to do.”