Word: macular
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Julia Levy of Vancouver still remembers the day in the mid-1980s when her heart broke. She was sitting across the dining-room table from Dorothy Coppens, her vibrant 85-year-old mother, who had just been found to be suffering from macular degeneration, an incurable deterioration of the central portion of the retina that is the leading cause of blindness in people 60 and older. "Your face is just a brown smear," Coppens told her daughter. "I guess I'll never see your face again...
...really see something only when it is about to leave us. For Grunwald, the beginning of such a loss came seven years ago, when a routine examination revealed that he was legally blind in his left eye and was one of roughly 15 million Americans who suffer from macular degeneration, a gradual diminishing of eyesight (often caused by age) for which there is no cure...
Welcome to the world of the incredible shrinking word. Fading sight is a common sign of aging, as are a host of more serious vision problems such as macular degeneration, glaucoma and cataracts. Others have been here before, of course. But because baby boomers are arriving in droves, these difficulties are getting an unprecedented amount of attention. Medical science has developed impressive techniques using lasers and corneal implants to correct vision defects. Some people, however, still need bigger type in order to read comfortably--and the publishing industry is coming to their rescue...
Until recently those titles, whether classics or current best sellers, have been available mainly in loan libraries. Vernon Ellickson, 83, is a typical large-type reader. A retired farmer with macular degeneration, Ellickson goes to the library in Decorah, Iowa, twice a week to pick out his favorite westerns and adventure books. He never buys them. "It would cost a lot," says Ellickson, who often reads more than a dozen large-print books a week. Publisher Olsen says this is not unusual. "When you're on a fixed income, to pay for a one-time read is inefficient when...
...million by 2000. Local libraries, environmental groups and his alma mater, M.I.T., have benefited handsomely; but Kirsch directs the bulk of his charity to scientists seeking cures for diseases that touch him. Kirsch's father is a diabetic who was recently found to have cancer; his mother suffers from macular degeneration. "Someday I could have to go through what my parents are. So if I can apply my dollars now, then when I'm older, it's possible I can have a better quality of life," he says. "People don't realize that you can have a giving program that...