After 10 Years of Blindness, This Man Saw His Wife for the First Time

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It’s confession time: if you were ever to meet me on the street, you would think I am mean because of my facial mannerisms. That’s planned actually. I don’t know too many people, so I don’t want a thief or thug walking up to me thinking that I’m an easy target.

I use my “man-wall” as a sign to show strangers that I am not a pushover.

So why was I tearing up when I watched the video below?

Allen Zderad lost his sight 10 years ago. I can’t even imagine losing my sight and never seeing my daughters again, but that’s where Allen was. He was unable to see his wife. So when the Mayo Clinic came up with an opportunity to restore his sight with a bionic eye (remember the Six Million Dollar Man?), he jumped at the chance.

You can only imagine what he felt when he started seeing shapes again. And then the moment came when he saw his wife in front of him.

blind man wife

blind man wife

From ABC News:

It was love again at first sight for a man who went blind 10 years ago.

Allen Zderad, a 68-year-old retiree from Minnesota, saw his wife for the first time in more than a decade thanks to a bionic eye implanted by doctors at the Mayo Clinic earlier this month.

“Thank you,” Zderad said in the touching scene captured on video. “It’s crude but it’s significant. … It’ll work.”

“Who do you see?” His wife Carmen asked Zderad just before the two hugged each other in a long, tearful embrace.

Zderad has retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative condition that attacks the retina. There is no treatment or cure for the disease. He told ABC News his vision gradually deteriorated over a 20-year period until he was only able to sense very bright light.

Zderad described his new-found abilities as “artificial sight.” He is able to make out shapes, forms and outlines in intermittent flashes. Everything is in black and white now, but with training and periodic upgrades over a five-year period he is confident that he will begin to see more sharply, he told ABC News.

“What an exciting, emotional thing to say that, ‘Yes, that is my wife,’” Zderad said. “I am grateful they made this as much about the person as the technology.”

Watching his emotional reaction and then the embrace at the end choked me up, I have to tell you. (But let’s just keep that between ourselves.)

These two deserve all the prayer you can send. What a story they will tell their grandkids going forward!

Sharing this amazing story of love with your family and friends during Christmas!

Wayne is a freelance writer who was named the 2015 American Conservative Union Blogger of the Year and awarded... More about Wayne Dupree

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