A Man Named Fred

This is a post about a man who belongs to our Church family.  Fred is a very sincere, artistic, and religious man, and he is blind.

I have known Fred for several years now and we have become good friends.  Fred is furiously independent, so much so that on a few occasions it has threatened our friendship but we each know when to step back and talk about what is bothering us.  Now sometimes I forget about his blindness and will show him something or make a facial expression, and of course he doesn't see me.  Our fun conversation is:
Fred:  "I don't want to take the bus."
Me: "Okay, so do you want to borrow my SUV?"

Fred:  "I can't see, remember?"
Me:  "Oh, so why should that stop you?"
And then we burst out laughing.  (o:

After going blind Fred learned to crochet, it was necessary so that he could make little covers for his throat.  Yes, Fred is a cancer survivor who had throat cancer and now speaks through an airway in his throat. He has a daughter but does not know where she is or even if she knows about his blindness and cancer.  We have talked about the possibility of finding her but that must be his decision.

He has his own apartment, is an excellent cook, loves to read, do crafts, and of course crochet.  I am so amazed at the technology for special needs, he has a reader (so he can read his Bible, novels) a color reader that tells him the color of his clothing, yarn, and anything else he needs to know. His clock has voice and tells him the time.  His weight scale also works with voice.

Now Fred is ready to begin a new business.  He has a shop on Etsy, his address is http://www.etsy.com/shop/Crochetgrannysquares. Currently he is making hats, scarfs, afghans and a fun & portable checker board game. Fred has a friend from Church helping with picture taking and posting on Etsy but it was decided that since I have my own shop (on Etsy) and know how to do the editing/posting that I should take over managing his shop, and so I have. Janet has just begun her SHOUT Ministry and is busy, so this change was a good decision.

Please drop in and see some of Fred's work.  I asked for his permission to post this on my Blog, and he had to think about it but finally gave in to my idea.  We talked about a Blog but at this time he doesn't have the capabilities on his computer to manage it himself.

One of Fred's Checker Sets available on Etsy

Checker Set on the go.....

Blessings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh no,  here comes trouble....

Hi, Happy Friday everybeary.  Just wanted to tell you that we are busy working on a project, we found where she keeps her paints - and that we will be back next Friday. Boy, "face painting" isn't easy.

"Oh my gosh, PRUDENCE, what have you done to LuLu?"
LuLu:   "Me soooo purtty."

to be continued....

Heaps of Hugs

Prudence