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Marie Dambrosky Denver, CO QCWA # 25270 Chapter 58 |
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OM: Selden WBØHUC Q# 25227 (sk)
From the Summer, 2013 Seniors in Charge, the newsletter of the NFB of Colorado's Senior Division
Marie Dambrosky is a 94 year-old participant in the Senior Program at the Colorado Center for the Blind. She is inspiring to all who know her. She continues to live independently in her own home near the University of Denver. She uses a white cane and is dedicated to new learning. I asked her how she keeps motivated. Here is what she told me.
"I'm so darned curious. I want to know how things work. Some of it comes from my childhood. We were brought up that way - to keep on going."
Marie grew up in Saskatchewan until she moved with her family at age 16 to Minnesota. There she went to a trade school and started work as a telegrapher. She later became a branch manager for Western Union. She eventually graduated to computers and has been a ham radio operator for 55 years.
Marie started having problems with her vision in 1972. She was diagnosed with glaucoma and had her first eye surgery in 1976. Eight years ago, Marie started to notice more changes with her vision. She was then diagnosed with macular degeneration. Following that, she found out about the Colorado Center for the Blind (CCB).
She says, "I am very happy that I found the CCB. It is one of my chief places of communication and support of all kinds. I appreciate the support of the CCB, all their inputs. They are part of my family. I have that support every week. If I couldn't go to CCB, it would almost be like not going to church!"
Cooking is a big part of Marie's life. She loves to experiment with new recipes. She recently baked cookies to give to students at the CCB.
"I love to cook," she says. "I like to try new techniques."
Marie does her own grocery shopping, using a shopper's assistant.
"I don't mind getting groceries that way. I prefer it - it gives me independence and a greater control of what I get."
Marie just keeps learning and trying new things. She recently purchased an iPad and has already learned how to send emails.
"I enjoy life," she comments. I worry sometimes that there won't be enough to do and I might get bored, but something always pops up."
Here is some advice from Marie:
"Seek information. Get information from medical sources, the internet, organizations and people. Find out what you can about your situation. The more information you have, the better you can handle it.
"You've got to have a sense of humor or you won't live well. Here is what I learned from religion - we are not in charge, but we have choices. We sure have an opportunity to make changes. This is one of my main ideas of life."
Editor's Note: We know her as the tiny, intelligent, fierce 90-something who still lived in her own home, came to the CCB for Senior activities almost weekly, Loved the NFB and spoke to our Convention in 2013 and 2014. In the latter presentation, part of the CCB Report, Marie talked about the One-touch Self-defense class she and other seniors had just completed. The buzz was that she was rather formidable.
No surprise, she came to the Senior program at the CCB at age 87 and set to work learning Braille. Later, she conquered an iPad using Voice Over. On February 5, just three months after speaking at that Convention on November 1, 2014, Marie Dambrosky passed from this life. She was 95.
Her memorial service is set for Saturday, March 7 at 1 p.m. at the Evanston Community Center, 2122 S. Lafayette St.
Her own words are enough to tell what kind of a woman she was, and how she dealt with her life after becoming blind. They will be more than sufficient for any casual reader to know how much we all miss her.
The Colorado Trust - A Health Equity Foundation - November 27, 2007
At 88, Marie Dambrosky had no time to waste when the vision in her good eye began to disappear.
She had struggled with glaucoma and cataracts for years. A failed surgery in her 40s left her blind in one eye, but she managed fine with vision in the other and worked for years at Arapahoe Community College. Late in life, however, macular degeneration was creating dark blotches in the center of her focus. Print from magazines used to spring off pages for her. Now, only the shadowy rim of images remained.
Dambrosky refused to give up her independence. So, she got busy trying to find help and connected with the Colorado Center for the Blind (CCB), a grantee of The Colorado Trust's Healthy Aging initiative.
"It's a Godsend," Dambrosky said of the Center. "It's a morale-builder. It's a skill builder. Without them, my life would be very empty."
The CCB is helping hundreds of seniors to remain independent and live richer lives. Nearly all of the seniors who seek help there have recently lost all or part of their vision. Macular degeneration is now the leading cause of blindness. Many seniors come to the center depressed and fearing isolation. With individual in-home training, weekly support groups and classes from Braille to computer skills, and cane travel to cooking, many seniors make peace with their vision loss.
"It's critical for seniors to be in their home environment," said Julie Deden, the CCB's executive director. "Keeping seniors in their homes prevents depression and keeps people integrated in all of the things they have been doing."
Dambrosky has lived in her Denver home since 1946. Every creak in the floorboards reminds her of treasured times with her husband and three children. For more than 60 years, she has cooked in her kitchen, worked the dirt in her garden and greeted the birds outside.
Specialists have customized Dambrosky's appliances by placing tactile markings so she can find her way without sight. When she wants to make her morning tea, she simply touches her microwave to find the right buttons. With such new adaptations, she is living much as she always has.she still joins fellow women ham radio operators for weekly chats, uses her computer for e-mail, has forms that help her write her own checks and attends church regularly.
Tuesday mornings at CCB are the highlight of every week. For everyone there, Dambrosky is a beacon of hope. At the CCB's annual Possibilities Fair, Dambrosky even conducted her own cooking seminar, showing fellow seniors how they could keep chopping vegetables and measuring ingredients.
"She's a real source of encouragement. She's learning Braille. She's living independently. It helps others think, .Maybe I can do that too,'" said Duncan Larsen, the CCB's senior services coordinator.
"If you're 65, you can't look at Marie and say, I'm too old to learn Braille."
Dambrosky knows it will take her about two years to master Braille. So, she practices at home. "I love learning new things," Dambrosky said. "The Braille is a challenge to me. I cannot guarantee how adept I'll be, but I'm working on it."