Six years after she became legally blind for the third time, Marja Byers’ husband told her, “I would rather die than become blind.”
She walked out of their house and never went back.
At ages 9 and 23, Salem resident Byers was declared legally blind. Her sight ability changed often, and after two surgeries in her early twenties, she randomly gained 20/20 vision. But in her early fifties, Byers discovered her range of vision was 20 degrees. A normal range is around 120 to 180 degrees.
So in September 2016, when her husband said he’d choose death over her lifestyle, she left.
“I traded my husband for a guide dog,” Byers said. She met a “hot young blonde,” named Fritz. The yellow labrador retriever stayed at Byers’ side from January 2018 until April this year, when he returned to his original owner.
In 2013, Byers joined Blindskills, a nonprofit organization that supports the Salem area’s blind and low-vision community. Founded in 1983, Blindskills provides peer support, connection to resources and social opportunities for blind or low-vision people, their friends and family or professionals.
From 2014 to 2021, Byers was Blindskills’ executive director and is currently a sight loss instructor at Hull Foundation and Learning Center, another Oregon nonprofit for blind people.
In 2019, Blindskills closed its office space and stopped publication of its magazine “Dialogue,” due to the expense of publishing in braille.
Byers continues to organize group meetings and parties for Blindskills, such as weekly Wednesday meetings at Capitol Coffee, 555 Court St. N.E., which started when the Blindskills office closed. The meetings offer people emotional support and resources, but also the chance to exercise the sight ability they have.
“The more we isolate, we go downhill fast,” Byers said. She and Blindskills’ board president John Hammill described the “undoing” effect of isolation and how they’ve known blind people whose vision worsened when they stopped coming to meetings.
“If you don’t use it, you lose it,” Byers said.
The weekly group, around 10 people, met for their sixth anniversary on Wednesday, Aug. 21. Byers called over Capitol Coffee’s manager, Miranda Dukes, to give her a card.
“Have you ever seen a card signed by blind people?” Byers joked. Instead of each group member signing the card, Byers printed off a photo of every member and signed their name beneath their picture.
Dukes has been a constant for the Blindskills group since their weekly meetings at Capitol Coffee began. She brings their orders to the table and checks in with many of the group members.
“They help the community almost more than the community helps them,” Dukes said.
To Byers and others at the Blindskills meetings, the organization is a way for blind or vision-impaired people to support each other through losing their sight. That can look like professional peer support and networking with public transportation officials, or venting about cab and Uber drivers not accepting blind people.
“Disabled people have a tendency to lair up,” Hammill said, referring to how some disabled people keep to themselves because of how often the world is “perilous” and inaccessible for them.
Blindskills is working on moving its Low Vision Life Skills group to Salem Health’s Community Health Education Center. The group will have topics and speakers from the Oregon Commission for the Blind and the Oregon Talking Books Program.
Byers said the time and details are still unknown, but she hopes the group will start at the new location next month.
Blindskills also has a group that goes bowling at the Keizer REC, 3500 River Rd. N, on the second Tuesday of the month.
On the first Friday of the month, family and friends can tag along for an evening event from 5 to 7 p.m.
People curious about Blindskills’ events and groups or who want to learn about resources in the area can call the organization at 503-581-4224.
Contact reporter Madeleine Moore: [email protected].
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Madeleine Moore is working as a reporter at Salem Reporter through the University of Oregon’s Charles Snowden internship program. She came to Salem after graduating from the University of Oregon in June 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
