A short film from British Pathé found on YouTube follows a group of children at play outdoors on a brisk spring day.
Boys and girls, bundled up in coats and knitted hats ride the roundabout, clamber onto the climbing net and push one another on the swing set.
In a less rambunctious sequence, a little girl holds a bunny, exploring its softness with rapt attention. Here she is with a bouquet of flowers, her fingers so nimble and active that the knowledge transferring from the hyacinth and daffodil blossoms to her mind is almost visible.
The year is 1951. The little girl has just turned five years old and has been blind for three years. Her name is Rosamund.
Today, Rosamund Van Leeuwen is a familiar sight as she walks through her West Vancouver neighbourhood. Accompanied by her guide dog, Rory, she's out and about, off to Curves, shopping and meeting friends.
Rosamund was already an independent child when her parents enrolled her in the progressive Sunshine Home Nursery School for Blind Children in England.
She was raised as if she were sighted, doing chores and romping with her two younger brothers. "I did try," Rosamund remembers. "I would say, 'I can't do the dishes because I can't tell if they're clean or not,' or 'I can't vacuum because I can't tell if the carpet is dirty or clean.' If I lost something, it was: 'Go and look first and I'll come later.' To this day, I'm the family 'finder.'" The aim of Sunshine House was to encourage confidence and independence by teaching children practical skills - how to use playground equipment, and to read and write braille. Rosamund remembers the running track, easy to follow with grass verges on either side, and the occasional whistle to warn runners that one of the school's donkeys had wandered onto the track.
At 17, Rosamund applied for Voluntary Service Overseas, the first blind person to do so. She was offered an assignment in Singapore at a new school for visually impaired children.
Everything about this adventure, from the day Rosamund sailed off to meet her future until she returned home a year later, instilled the confidence that she could make a life for herself on her own. From the perspective of today, Rosamund says, "I give credit to my parents and my teachers, whose grounding gave me a positive attitude and the self-confidence to make a good life."
In Singapore, while learning to live in a new environment and culture, her role was to educate the public, liaise between staff and students, and to interact with the children, with specific instructions to set an example of self-reliance.
Once the students understood that their ploys - "I can't do X because I'm blind" - were futile, Rosamund and her charges, and a group of volunteers, took on practical and recreational activities, many experienced by the students for the first time, that would stimulate in them a sense of independence and accomplishment.
Next came shared digs in London and training as a physiotherapist. With the world and its possibilities to explore, Rosamund intended to live, work and travel for a year in Canada, Australia and South Africa. The adventure began in Canada, at a hospital in Maple Ridge. Here Rosamund, an accomplished water skier, learned to ski on snow, wearing out several trail guides on weekend ski excursions. Five years later, her travel plan accomplished, she returned to Vancouver to make her home with husband Richard and their two children.
Rosamund chairs the PAWS for Independence Association, which provides education on assisting people with disabilities, especially those who use working dogs. She gives talks on behalf of the CNIB, B.C. Guide Dogs Services and EYE Deal, the information and support group for people with low-vision at West Vancouver Seniors' Activity Centre.
Rosamund will read, or rather hear, this profile through the program JAWS, which reads aloud the words on her computer monitor.
From friends and family who have watched the British Pathé film, Rosamund knows her facial expressions, and how she handles flowers, have not changed since she was five years old at the Sunshine School. The video can be found by searching on YouTube for its title, "Blind Children's Home (1951)."
Laura Anderson works with and for seniors on the North Shore. 778-279-2275 [email protected]
