My Eyesight Was So Bad, I Had My Drivers License Taken Away

What I did to get my sight back.

Photo of the author, by the author

A few days ago, I wrote about how I drove my mom to the hospital in an emergency when I was visiting for Christmas. You can read that story here.

I Thought My 89-Year-Old Parents Were Doing OK Until I Went Home For Christmas

A few people asked me why I didn’t have a driver’s license. This is what happened:

Until about eight years ago, I was a college professor in Ohio. My insurance for eye care only covered glasses. I was extremely near-sighted for years, and as I got older, it was only getting worse. I had already started to limit my driving to familiar routes in my small town. My only son was then old enough to drive, so sometimes I rode with him.

When I was about 55 years old, I went to get my license renewed and they asked me to read the eye chart. I could not read it at all, even with my glasses on. Not surprisingly, they took my license away.

This was close to the same time that I retired from my professor job and moved to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The transportation options in and around San…