Mary G. (Recipient)

Having one’s sight restored can give a person a deeper sense of gratitude. It can also give one a sense of duty to honor that renewed gift of sight. As Mary Grable, a cornea recipient puts it, “Even though I don’t know (my donor), I know that they were a very kind and loving person to be a cornea donor. I can honestly say I do pray for the family every day, and thank them… I must now be able to see the beauty in the world and do things not only for myself, but now I’m responsible for someone else too, because this is what the donor wanted. I will always treasure the gift.”    

After a walk-in visit for a routine eye exam, Mary was told that she had Fuchs dystrophy, where fluid builds up in the cornea, causing it to swell. As the disease progresses, it can lead to glare, blurred or cloudy vision, and eye discomfort. So Mary made her way to the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins to find a specialist, and that is when she met Dr. Divya Srikumaran. Together they crafted a plan to delay the surgery for the time being, but to monitor the situation until surgery was absolutely necessary. 

That time came sooner than either of them could have anticipated. Mary’s vision was steadily deteriorating, but she kept finding workarounds. In the kitchen, she’d take photos of food packages, zooming in to read the instructions. As Mary recounts, “I couldn’t cook because I needed to see the directions. So I would get up close with my phone, start taking pictures on the package where I figured the directions would be, and then just blow it up and then read it word for word. So that was how cooking was done.” It wasn’t until she found herself on the back deck one day watching her grandchildren play in the yard that she could no longer put off surgery. The truth was, Mary wasn’t able to tell her grandchildren apart. She could hear their voices and their laughter, but she couldn’t tell who was who – it was a blur. 

Now, five months after her first surgery, Mary has new glasses, a new prescription, and a new-found appreciation of the world around her.   

Throughout all this time, the challenges and the celebrations, Mary’s thought a lot about her gift, her donor, and her donor family. As Mary says, “Not a day has gone by that I haven’t thought I could be seeing through a child’s eyes or an older person. So since I don’t know, I always have to look at things and make sure that I keep my mind open, like a child would, but also have the wisdom of someone older.” 

We’re quite certain that Mary will continue that sense of duty and honor her donor’s gift with each new day.