Ray B

My hero is my grandfather. He was both blind and deaf, and yet, he taught me to read at the age of four. At a time when children who had severe learning difficulties were told to not bother going to school...there was no place for them, he taught me to read. The school could not turn away a 4-year old who could read at a middle school level! How did he do this? A little publication called the Reader's Digest.
He taught me my letters first. Then he would take his braille edition and I would take my print edition. I would find the right story by the leading letters, then we would read the stories together. We would discuss what we had read together. From the age of four until today, I am a cover to cover reader of the Digest. Until he passed away, my grandfather would read the digest and then discuss all the articles each month.

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