Dad hadn’t mentioned anything about your being blind, Shana thought.
Ben then said, “I asked Mona if she wanted to join us for pizza, but she can’t do it today.”
Mona turned from Shana and smiled at Ben. “I told my driver to pick me back up in an hour, so I can’t today, but I’d love to take a rain check for another time.”
Shana watched her father beam all over himself when he asked, “Then we have a date?”
Mona chuckled, and Shana thought the sound was as charming as the woman was. “Yes, Ben, we have a date. We can talk more about it the next time you call.”
Her dad had been calling?
“Sure thing,” she heard her father say. And then he asked, “Need help selecting any fruit and veggies today? They look mighty good and real fresh.”
Shana knew that this was probably their private time together, and she didn’t want to intrude, so she spoke up and said, “I need to check out some meats in the deli, Dad.” She then said, “Mona, it was truly a pleasure meeting you, and I hope to see you again.”
“You will,” Ben piped up.
Shana had no doubt in her mind that she would.
* * *
Shana waited until they had gotten back to her father’s home and she was helping him put away the items he’d purchased at the store when she finally asked, “Why didn’t you mention the fact that Mona is blind?”
Ben shrugged as he kept on what he was doing. “I don’t pay much attention to the blindness since she is so independent and all. She’s not completely blind but has been ruled legally blind.”
Shana leaned back against the counter. “There’s a difference?”
“In a way. Mona can see some things, just not clearly. She said her sight has worsened to where everything is becoming a shadow.”
Shana nodded. “Do you know what happened?”
“Yes. An auto accident about five years ago. She had worked late at the university, and some student was leaving a frat party while drunk. He broadsided her when he ran a traffic light. She was lucky to survive and credits her seat belt with saving her life. The student wasn’t that lucky. He wasn’t wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the car and killed instantly.”
“My goodness, how sad,” Shana said, shaking her head at the stupidity of anyone driving while under the influence.
“Her husband told her he couldn’t handle a wife who would become dependent on him, so he bailed out. A year later, he married his secretary. It seemed the two of them had been having an affair anyway.”
Ben didn’t say anything for a minute and then added, “Lucky for Mona, her optic nerve wasn’t damaged, just her peripheral nerves. There’s a possibility they can recover, but there’s no guarantee that they will. At one point, she had begun to see more light and color, but now she said that is fading. However, the doctor advised her there is a fifty-fifty chance her eyesight might return or that she could lose it permanently.”
Shana breathed in deeply, thinking of the sad situation Mona was in. It took hearing something like this to make you realize that your problems—the ones you thought were so big—really weren’t monumental at all. “She seems nice.”
“She is nice,” Ben reiterated. “She reminds me a lot of your mother.”
Shana lifted a brow. “How so?”
“They are both fighters. I remember when the doctor first broke the news to us that your mom had cancer. She was determined not to let it get her down, and every day, I watched her put her best foot forward even when I knew what it was costing her to do so. Her strength gave me strength. I can imagine how Mona must have felt when her husband walked off and left her at the time she needed him the most. But she didn’t curl up and die. She adjusted her life and did what she had to do. She’s still teaching at the university and fends for herself living alone.”
“Any kids?”
“No, her husband claimed he never wanted any. Now he and his new wife have two. That was a low blow to Mona.”
Shana tilted her head back and gazed up at her father. “You certainly know a lot about a woman you’ve only chatted with a few times over squash, tomatoes and zucchini.”
Ben threw his head back and laughed. “They were long conversations, but now I get to take her out on a date to get to know