An Elephant's Ballet: One Man's Successful Struggle with Sudden Blindness

one man's successful struggle with sudden blindness

Plot

"For me to write a book is an enormous undertaking. I sit at a typewriter and write words on paper that I will never see." With these words Robert Kemper begins the moving story of his gradual blindness and adjustment to his new life. He describes it as very much like an elephant trying to learn to do ballet. It is not good ballet but it is amazing that he dances at all! In 1971 Robert Kemper was riding high. He had just been appointed editor of Christian Ministry, a new national magazine. This position he felt well-qualified for and found very challenging. But within a few months his eyesight began to fail. It began with double vision and gradually progressed to other loss of vision. Within two years he knew that the disease was irreversible and he was declared legally blind with only slight peripheral vision. An Elephant's Ballet is the story of his struggle through the long months to find a cure. then the adjustments which both he and his family had to make to a new way of life, and finally a new career. This is a story of hope and courage in which a person faced with a tragic loss finds new hope and destiny through faith.