On February 25 I walked home from a dental appointment. I was out alone, enjoying the feeling of independence after a year of too much staying home. Ten minutes into my walk I tripped on a concrete parking block and broke my right arm.

I had not requested mobility training in my new home town, or attended weekly exercise classes, in-person, on Zoom or YouTube. Nor had I started swimming or water aerobics before they all closed. I will now do all of this – way after the horse left the barn!

This month’s offerings are thin because using the keyboard was painful. I am well out of the sling, but do have physical therapy twice a week and practice three times a day for a couple of months.

Since I retired in 2016 and moved to a home with no stairs, I have lived a much less active life. I worked hard   writing and promoting my book, When You Can’t Believe Your Eyes: Vision Loss and Personal Recovery, but it was nearly all sitting down.

I hadn’t really owned up to the loss of bone density, strength, and balance that I had in my thirties. I may have tripped and staggered in the first thirty years after I became legally blind but never fell with a crash! In the last twelve years I have had four falls with increasingly serious consequences!

I am working on a longer post directed twards older people like me who live with blindness or low vision suggesting ways to tone up our muscles, and especially work on balance. When it becomes safe to do things again, please learn from my mistakes and hone your safety skills before you get going!