Friendships in Dark

by Phyllis Campbell

Book Overview

Born blind on a tiny Virginia farm at the height of the Depression, Phyllis Campbell never realized she was poor. She was surrounded by a family and pets that always brought light into her life, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312966342
• ISBN13: 9780312966348
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 2.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Friendships in the Dark review

This is a wonderful true story of a woman who was born blind and her journey through life. Many of her friendships are with animals (especially cats, and her guide dog Lear) but there are human interactions too. If you want to sit back, relax and have a great read - quick and easy but definitely worth the time, this is the book for you. Phyllis Campbell is a remarkable woman - taught at the VA School for the Deaf and Blind, plays and teaches organ/piano, knitting, does computers (OK, that isn't in the book) and much much more. She puts most of us to shame. I read this several years ago and now want to reread it. Definitely worth the time - and will absolutely make you smile. Ruthann McCaulley

Great reading for a dark autumn-evening

Our world is for those with eyesight. Looking a loved one deep in the eyes, carefully avoiding getting hit in our busy traffic, watching our favorite movies or tv-shows. Who doesn't know the feeling of stumbling around in a dark house trying to find the lightswitch? But who can really imagine what it is like to live in this world without that sense of sight. Reading the story of a remarkable woman, who has never been able to see, but faces the world and her daily problems with great optimism, makes you reflect upon how our lives would be if we were unable to see. Would we have the courage to get up in the morning and face the day. I wonder. I really enjoyed reading her story, because it is so recognizable. Because we can see the dogs, the cats, the horses and her husband. Take an evening off and read her tales.

A remarkable woman living with blindness

Review of Friendships in the Dark Phyllis Campbell is a writer, teacher, counselor, and musician, who happens to love animals. Her autobiography, Friendships in the Dark, chronicles ordinary events; leaving home, going to school, getting that first apartment, meeting her future husband - made magical by the intervention of the pets and people in her life. Blind since birth, Phyllis left home at six to attend Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind, where her sister Inez was also a student. Just as the blind seek a physical connection with objects and people to make the meanings denied by sight, Phyllis weaves emotional connections to the events in her life. Thus, the ill and homesick child, away at school for the first time, hears a dog that barks nightly on Beverly Street as a messenger from her dog Sly, at home 70 miles away. The prayer of the five-year-old Phyllis, "Please God, bring my cat home." is answered 20 years later when Phyllis and her sis! ter rescue the lost cat of another child. Her husband Chuck designed the wrist corsage Phyllis wore to play the piano at her senior dance, although the two were not to meet until years later. If you can't imagine what it is like to be blind, this book will enlighten you. You'll learn what braille is and how it's taught, and what it's like to lie in the school infirmary 50 years ago, haunted by grim ghosts of blind girls from a century before. You'll feel her anxiety when Phyllis flies alone to New York for 4 weeks of training at Guiding Eyes for the Blind, and the connection when she and the dog, Lear, suddenly bond. You'll understand her doubts as a blind woman contemplating marriage to a man with normal sight; "For me, there was always that fear that I couldn't take my place as a normal wife. What if I failed?" But it is the people, blind and sighted, and especially the animals in Phyllis's life that illuminate this book. From Gray Boy, the cat left home! when she went away to school, to Lady Jane Gray, the cat t! hat came with her first house and still commands the castle, to wonderful Lear -- the dogs and cats stalk and scamper through her book, dragging mayhem and laughter behind them. Like the good Virginia wool in the socks she knits, Phyllis Campbell's memories of pets and people in the past are woven together in a rich fabric. This book makes a great gift. Better yet, buy it for yourself.

This book is delightful in its humor, and love.

As a country girl I have always loved the books written by James Herriot. When I read "Friendships in the dark" I knew that I had found another such writer. She knows the importance of a farm horse, the loyalty of a good old dog, and the companionship of a cat. I am not blind, but followed her and her dog guide Lear through every adventure, and cried huge tears at his death. I would recommend this title to anyone who loves animals, or to one who simply wants a good read. If you aren't an animal lover you may be one when you finish the book.