S1E5 "From Nurse To Advocate: Parenting Without Sight" w/ Jennifer Evans-Rice Pt 1

What does it look like to parent boldly when sight fades but purpose sharpens? We sit down with Jennifer, a blind mom of three and former RN, to trace the real steps—messy, methodical, and joyful—that turn fear into a family rhythm. From leaving a decade-long nursing career to mastering vision rehab, she shares how cooking by touch, organizing a kid-safe home, and using assistive technology can rebuild independence without diluting warmth or play.

We dig into the moment pregnancy and postpartum hormones accelerated her vision loss and how she chose to keep growing her family anyway. That choice wasn’t denial—it was informed by examples of thriving blind parents and a toolkit of resources: orientation and mobility training, screen readers and voice control, OCR and navigation apps, and the collective wisdom of groups like the Blind Parent Alliance, the National Federation of the Blind, and local Commissions for the Blind. We talk transportation, park safety, labeling systems, and the tiny routines that make big challenges manageable.

There’s a deeper cultural layer here too. Jennifer speaks honestly about faith, secrecy, and the pressure to stay quiet in Black communities. Her stance is both/and: hold hope and build a plan. Partners may accept at different speeds; kids learn empathy by living access every day. Through humor and candor—“I can’t drive, but I can do almost everything else”—she flips the script on disability, replacing pity with skills and agency. If you or someone you love is navigating blindness, you’ll leave with practical starting points and a renewed sense that motherhood can thrive outside the margins others draw.

If this conversation moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help more families find tools, community, and courage.

Chapters

• 0:14 Welcome And Topic: Momming In The Margins
• 1:28 Meet Jennifer: Blind Mom And RN
• 3:14 Leaving Nursing As Vision Declines
• 4:20 Relearning Life Skills While Blind
• 5:20 Family Adjustment And Acceptance
• 7:36 Pregnancy, Hormones, And Sight Loss
• 9:36 Choosing Family Despite Progression
• 10:44 Finding Community And Practical Help
• 12:29 Black Mom Magic And Redefining Parenting
• 14:50 Kids’ Empathy And Representation
• 18:26 Faith, Secrecy, And Preparing For Blindness
• 20:19 Hope, Tech, And Skills Over Pity
• 22:31 You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
• 24:52 Part One Closing And How To Support

Transcript

Jaye Wilson: 0:14

Hey girl, hey, it's your girl Jaye. Welcome to another episode of Melinated Mommy Talks, the podcast. I am so excited to have a wonderful guest with us for this episode. We are going to be having an amazing conversation about momming in the margins. And what actually is that? You know, we're introducing this, actually adapted from one of our amazing sister partners, Black Ladies in Public Health. And we really want to talk to more moms about what does it look like to navigate this new normal based on our intersections of our lives, our pregnancies, our postpartum, our family dynamics, and who we are as individuals. It's very difficult to transition from woman or birthing person to mom or parent. And when you put the complexities of um losing your sight or having a disability into that same equation, it just can look drastically different. So we want to make sure that we're not assuming what do these journeys look like. We want to ask. I'm so excited to have an amazing guest with us today, Mrs. Jennifer Evans Rice. She is a registered nurse. She is a blind woman and an amazing mom. And we are so excited to hear her story. This conversation was full and robust and couldn't be contained in one episode. So we broke it into two parts. So go ahead and pull up your metaphorical seat, tap in, and enjoy part one of our conversation with Jennifer Evans Rice. So I'm gonna turn it over to you, Jennifer. Tell us more about who you are.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 2:12

Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.

Jaye Wilson: 2:14

Yay.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 2:14

Uh yup. So I am a blind mom of three beautiful girls. I have two toddlers and one newborn at home, uh, and a very supportive husband. Uh, I am a registered nurse of over 10 years. I recently resigned from nursing and I'm moving into a new field. So helping other individuals who are blind or recently blind navigate their life, whether it's at home, learning new activities and daily activity skills, or learning new tech skills like your phone or your computer and such. So, kind of how do you operate your life when you first turn blind? So that is a little bit, a little snippet about me and what's going on in my life.

Jaye Wilson: 2:49

I love it. I love it. Let's dive a little bit into that, if you don't mind.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 2:53

Let's do it.

Jaye Wilson: 2:54

So, you know, we both talked a lot beforehand, um, and we both shared that wer'e nurses, right?

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 2:59

Yes.

Jaye Wilson: 3:00

So, how did you decide the transition to go from a, a skill as a nurse to say, I want to actually dive into something that's reflective of what my lived experience is to help other people? How did you dive into that?

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 3:14

So I was working in the nursing field for I don't know how many years, but 10, 10 plus years as a case manager. So I'm kind of behind the scenes. I'm doing more of the computer work. I'm not giving anyone needles, no small pills, nothing like that. Um, everybody's safe. Um, but after a while, the computer got really hard for me to see. So I'm, I'm enlarging the computer as much as I can. I'm inverting the colors to help with the glare, and nothing is working. Um, COVID came, and of course, we're we're not able to go see patients in their rooms. So I was like, oh, great, I could just call them on their phones. It works perfect for me. And then COVID, you know, went away, thank God. Uh, and we had to go back into the hospital and back into patients' rooms. And I can't find your room. I don't know what room you're in because I can't see the numbers on the outside of the door, and I also don't know Braille. And so at that point, it's like, I may need to leave nursing alone because I'm not doing it by the books or how it's supposed to be done. I'm not giving the patients that face-to-face interaction like how I'm supposed to. I can't see the computer to know the medical background of this patient to offer whatever resources. So let me find something that's different. And so these individuals helped me. So it's something called a vision rehab therapist and assistive technology. They helped me to kind of redo my entire life. How do I cook while I'm blind? How do I raise my kids while I'm blind? How do I clean while I'm blind? How do I navigate my phone, my computer, my television, all those other things while blind? And so it took me about two years to learn all these new skills as a blind person. And so I want to help the next person overcome those uh obstacles. So you recently went blind and you don't know how to do any of it. It's a whole cultural shock. I'm gonna come in as that person saying, it's okay. I'm gonna help you. Let's take this one step at a time. This is how you sweep, this is how you turn on the stove, this is how you put toothpaste on a toothbrush, simple things, and then we'll go to more complex things like how this is how you cross a busy intersection. So that's kind of my journey out of nursing and then into the world of low vision and blind.

Jaye Wilson: 5:14

Wow.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 5:14

Yeah.

Jaye Wilson: 5:15

That's a journey, girl.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 5:16

It is a journey.

Jaye Wilson: 5:17

That is a journey.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 5:20

It was a journey. It took a lot of work on my part trying to just navigate my own life. Um, and then doing this while having young kids and being pregnant and giving birth and whatever else. So I'm learning my own skills while trying to raise these little babies who are dependent on me. It was a whole journey for about two, three years. Well, for for my lifetime, but my acceptance took about two to three years.

Jaye Wilson: 5:41

Wow.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 5:41

Yeah.

Jaye Wilson: 5:41

And while you were going through that, how was the dynamics with incorporating your husband and your kids in this same journey?

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 5:48

Yeah. My husband, bless his heart. So he, he, of, we wanted a cure for whatever my eye disease is. It's called uveitis. We wanted to fix it. We wanted an eye transplant. We wanted something, stem cell, whatever was out there. Um, and he was holding on to hope a lot longer than I was. So after a while, I realized this is my diagnosis. I'm eventually going to go completely blind. And so I need to figure this out because being sighted is not working anymore. And so my husband was like, well, let's still hold on to hope. Let's still try to find something that's gonna fix your vision, medications and doctors and injections and whatever resources out there. I, I now walk with a cane and he didn't like that at first. But now he's come around and he's totally is very supportive of my blindness and it doesn't phase him anymore. I've gone through my adjustment period and now he has, is going through his of having a blind uh a blind wife. For my kids, they don't know any different. They're young, they're toddlers, they just know mommy's blind and they have to pick up their toys, so I don't step on them. So that's uh...

Jaye Wilson: 6:52

That's a benefit.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 6:53

It is a benefit. Those Legos hurt.

Jaye Wilson: 6:55

Yes.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 6:56

Yeah.

Jaye Wilson: 6:57

Definitely. Like I, I think about that with my kids. My kids are older now. They're...

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 7:01

Yuh huh.

Jaye Wilson: 7:01

...13 and 16, and I'm, I'm not stepping on Legos, but it's like shoes and sneakers and...

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 7:07

Everything in the way.

Jaye Wilson: 7:08

Random things that just seem to live on the floor.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 7:11

Yeah.

Jaye Wilson: 7:11

Um, so I can totally understand. They're like, oh wait, mommy really literally can't see this. Instead of, I'm just gonna ignore it and mommy will pick it up.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 7:19

Yep. So they are getting a whole lot better at picking up their toys and it's not all over the floor. They're still kids, and you know, I let them be kids. Uh that's one thing I definitely want to keep is my kids are kids. They might have a blind mom, but their life, their childhood shouldn't be anything different than the next child.

Jaye Wilson: 7:35

I appreciate that. Um, so let's dive a little bit into your pregnancy.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 7:39

Yeah, let's do it.

Jaye Wilson: 7:41

In our conversation, um, we talked about how your doctors told you with having your pregnancies, it will actually quicken the loss of your vision. And, you know, I was actually having our conversation with our producers and I was saying, you know, I actually can relate to that a little bit. Um when I was having my oldest daughter, um, I had pre-eclampsia. I had pre-clamps with all my pregnancies.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 8:03

Yeah.

Jaye Wilson: 8:04

Kids tried to kill me.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 8:04

Oh, goodness.

Jaye Wilson: 8:06

It was not fun.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 8:07

But you're still here.

Jaye Wilson: 8:08

And I'm grateful. And I yeah. But when I was going into labor with her, I actually lost my sight in my left eye. It was it was temporary, but that was their indicator of like, we gotta get this baby out. So to understand, I, I'm, I'm asking, how did you get to the point of saying, I understand that my loss of sight is giving life to my children. Um, and I'm okay with that.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 8:34

Yeah. So before we had kids, we, we knew we wanted a big family. We knew we wanted to give or take about four kids and such. So having the first child, I didn't know that my vision was gonna go down after birth.

Jaye Wilson: 8:46

Okay.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 8:46

Um, so after birth, my vision went down. Of course, your hormones are erratic and such. I go to my doctor saying, Listen, I'm, I really can't see. This is it, I'm having a rapid decline. My daughter, you know, is two months old at this point. And they said it's, it's because your hormones and it's because of your immune system kind of just going all crazy because you just gave birth. That's just normal. But with me, it's, it's the, the hormones, the immunization and such affected my eye condition as well. So it's a rapid decline for a period of time and then it might bounce back a little bit.

Jaye Wilson: 9:18

Okay.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 9:19

Only a little bit. And so you go from, you know, 20/40 vision down to 20/60 vision, and then that's now your new norm. So I had to experience that new norm while having a newborn. And then I want another kid. I wanted her to have a sibling and then them to play together. So I don't have to be their only playmate.

Jaye Wilson: 9:36

Yes.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 9:37

Um, and so we gave birth again, knowing that my vision's gonna go down. But I think in the back of my mind, I knew that at some point in my life, before I reach a hundred years old and meet my heavenly father, my vision's gonna go down. And so whether it happens now or it happens in 10 years, it's gonna happen. So I'm not going to stop what I want in my life and in my family just because that might speed up the process. It's gonna happen anyway. So if it's gonna happen, let's just do it. Let's just get it over with. Let's let's move forward. Let's have these kids, let's give them the best life that they can, that, that we can, regardless of what my vision's going to be. Also, seeing other blind parents do it is like, okay, if they can do it, I can do it. Let's figure this out.

Jaye Wilson: 10:16

I love that.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 10:16

Um, so I didn't want to stop my goals just because of my one ailment.

Jaye Wilson: 10:21

Okay.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 10:22

Yeah.

Jaye Wilson: 10:22

That's helpful. That's really, that's really helpful and motivational, honestly.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 10:26

Yeah.

Jaye Wilson: 10:26

Talk a little bit more about that. So, you know, we really wanted to try to find some more data on blind parenting, particularly, you know, uh black and brown parenting with people who are losing their sight. How did you find groups that were surrounding parenthood and being blind?

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 10:44

Yeah, honestly, social media. I know, you know, social media as, you know, can be a good or bad thing, but social media actually really did help me out. So there is a group on social media called Blind Parent Alliance, and I am a part of that group. And you can post different questions about parenting. Uh, how do I do this and how do I do that? Or just watch the feed and see what other people are are posting, uh, and then get your answers from there. How do you raise your kid while you're blind and all the questions? The one thing that we all talk about is transportation. We don't drive because we're we're blind, right? You do not want us on the road.

Jaye Wilson: 11:18

I don't.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 11:18

Not at all.

Jaye Wilson: 11:19

I understand. I appreciate, I appreciate it.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 11:22

Not at all. So, how do you get to the park if you are a blind mom? And then when you get to the park, how do you make sure your kid's not gonna run off somewhere or a stranger's not gonna take their hand and run off? So, all those questions we post and we brainstorm ideas together. And so that really helped understand uh my parenting and how I'm gonna raise my kids a little bit different than how a sighted mom might raise her kids. And so social media has definitely helped out. There are other organizations I'm a part of, like the National Federation for the Blind, the American Council for the Blind. Every state has their own chapter, like the Commission for the Blind, the Lighthouse for the Blind or whatnot. All these different organizations that I've been a part of have also really helped being a blind person as well as being a blind parent, understand how do I raise my kids? How do I just be blind and be successful in order to raise my kids as successful individuals?

Jaye Wilson: 12:13

I love that.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 12:13

Yeah. So I love these organizations because they are big organizations that really do help out uh and and give you positive feedback as, as you, you are blind, but you do not need to have a lifelong pity party.

Jaye Wilson: 12:24

Right.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 12:25

Have your pity party for a day and then get up and let's figure it out.

Jaye Wilson: 12:27

That's it. That's it. So in a previous episode, we discussed what black mom magic actually looks like. And I believe this is such a great example of how black mom magic shows up in the way that we find new ways to literally be magicians.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 12:45

Absolutely. I love that black, black mom magic. I'm gonna use that. I love it. Black mom. Can I get a shirt?

Jaye Wilson: 12:51

We're gonna get some t-shirts.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 12:53

I love it.

Jaye Wilson: 12:54

We're gonna get some t-shirts.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 12:55

Yaaassss.

Jaye Wilson: 12:55

We love some merch. We love some merch.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 12:57

Absolutely.

Jaye Wilson: 12:57

Pick up the Melinated Mom's t-shirt on our platform.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 13:00

Absolutely.

Jaye Wilson: 13:01

Yes.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 13:01

Please do.

Jaye Wilson: 13:02

Yes.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 13:04

I heard of black girl magic, but I'm gonna start doing the black, black mom magic. I love it.

Jaye Wilson: 13:09

Yes.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 13:09

Okay.

Jaye Wilson: 13:10

It kind of stemmed from us like paying attention to the way that moms will find a way out of no way.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 13:16

Absolutely.

Jaye Wilson: 13:17

So, like to navigate these new systems, these new things, these new human beings that came from you, you have to literally be a magician sometimes.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 13:26

You have to be an octopus.

Jaye Wilson: 13:27

You do.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 13:28

Yeah. You have to have several arms and legs. Yes.

Jaye Wilson: 13:32

Be an octopus.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 13:33

Yes, be an octopus.

Jaye Wilson: 13:35

So like I, I love that, like, because I think it also shifts the way that we think about uh traditional parenting and what that means and like what it's supposed to look like. We're all beautiful, unique people. And if we're doing it right from my perspective...

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 13:53

Yes.

Jaye Wilson: 13:54

This is also the way that we teach our children how to become good, wonderful people who are going to contribute to the society. Like I think about my girls and the things that I'm teaching them with my work and just me being a regular human being and I'm watching them grow, right? So like my oldest is 16 and she's like driving now and she has a job and she's like a whole like person.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 14:16

Kudos to her. I love it.

Jaye Wilson: 14:17

Right?

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 14:18

Yeah. Kudos to you as a mom for raising a 16-year-old.

Jaye Wilson: 14:21

Oh, thank you.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 14:22

Yes.

Jaye Wilson: 14:24

Some days, child.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 14:25

Some days. I get cha. All the positive vibes.

Jaye Wilson: 14:29

Yes, and I appreciate it. Um, I'm saying all that to say when I'm hearing you and then I'm finding so much fascination in your ability to find all of these groups and and um foundations and organizations. Are there any groups that exist for our kids who are navigating either blindness themselves or having blind parents?

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 14:49

Yeah. So with the National Federation for the Blind, they have different uh like subgroups. And so one of those subgroups is parents of blind children.

Jaye Wilson: 14:56

Okay.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 14:57

And so that kind of helps these children understand whether their parents are blind or they are blind themselves. It gives a network of other kids that are like them. So when I was younger in my teenage years and in younger years, I was, I'm from New Jersey. And in New Jersey, there was, yep, Jersey in the house. There were these two organizations or two uh subsections. So one was called the LEAD program. It stood for leadership, education, advocacy, and determination. And it was these preteen high school students, including myself, we would all go on different trips. We would go together. All of us are blind, visually impaired, and it was a one day a month that we could get together and not feel that we are different from everybody else around us. It was so much fun. And we didn't think anything of it. We just think we're hanging out with our friends.

Jaye Wilson: 15:42

Yeah.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 15:43

Now that I'm an adult, it's like that was so crucial in my childhood to know that I am not the only blind person out there. I'm not the only blind teenager out there. And all of our struggles and joys and victories were very similar as opposed to my other friends at school. The other one was something called Camp Marcella up in uh North Jersey. And you, it's a residential camp. You go there overnight for a week, you are around other blind people, and you are just immersed in a blind world for the whole entire week. And it was absolutely amazing to just be like, this is my people. This is my culture. This is, this is me. If we walk into a tree, we're all walking into a tree because we're all blind. We can't see it. It was, it was amazing. And so I was a camper for there for a couple of years. I was a camp counselor there for a couple years. I'm actually thinking of going back this summer because I love it so much.

Jaye Wilson: 16:31

That's so cool.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 16:32

Yeah. And so finding these groups as a kid was really helpful. Um, some individuals are completely blind and some individuals were on their blind journey. And it was just the whole spectrum of just being low vision and blind. It was an absolutely amazing experience. So if there are any kids out there or parents with kids who have visual impairments, get them involved and get them to know other kids who are blind or low vision, or even if it's just not blind, if it's any disability or any type of just difference, get them around people or like-minded people because it definitely helps them to grow and know that they are not alone in whatever they're going through.

Jaye Wilson: 17:07

Yeah.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 17:07

These experiences were amazing. I, I love them.

Jaye Wilson: 17:10

I love that.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 17:10

Oh, yeah. And then to piggyback off of kind of just raising your your kids and your, I think you said two daughters?

Jaye Wilson: 17:17

Two girls, yeah.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 17:18

Two girls, yep. And then my kids as well. I think our kids are gonna grow up with such great empathy because they're gonna see us knowing, uh be, you know, working through my blindness and understanding that I may be different than the next mom. And then you and your organization and how you help so many different people, they're gonna be such empathetic individuals that I think we are producing some really great kids to put into this world.

Jaye Wilson: 17:42

Yeah.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 17:42

Yeah.

Jaye Wilson: 17:43

Yeah. I agree. I agree. I think that the thing that makes all of this worth it is our willingness to talk out loud about it.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 17:52

Yes.

Jaye Wilson: 17:52

Um, I think as we, we always know in the black community, it's, it's very hard for us to find people who are willing to share these things. It all, it's all like sitting behind secrets, right? And...

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 18:05

Unfortunately, yeah.

Jaye Wilson: 18:06

Yeah. And it, it takes away from the ability to normalize. There are people who are blind or low vision and they're all around us, right? But if no one talks about it or if everyone, you know, is hush-hush about it, you feel isolated, you know, if this becomes your experience, right?

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 18:25

That is very true. I did a um a research project recently for, I'm in grad school at the moment, for low vision and blindness, and one of the topics was about African Americans and being low vision and blind, and how, you know, we are very much into church and we, we believe in, in God and, and such. One thing I think is very crippling is, is it can be hope. If the doctors are telling you that you are low vision, you are blind, you have this diagnosis that is progressive and such, a lot of individuals uh I have heard um will hold on to that hope, that one little morsel of hope, saying, but I can restore my vision if I pray enough or if I fast enough or if I whatnot. That was my experience. So when I was younger, they were just saying, just pray about it or just fast about it and such. Don't talk about it. Don't let the devil hear what you're gonna say, just talk to God. But I needed to talk to uh to somebody about it and what I'm going through and what's happening and whatnot. And I needed to prepare, and this is what's gonna happen. I need to prepare for it. I'll hold on to hope just in case God decides to come down and spit some clay and some spit and whatever else and rub it on my eyes. Cool, let's do that. But just in case he doesn't, let me prepare, let me talk to other individuals who have gone through this journey so I can be prepared and it's not a cultural shock when I'm in my mid-30s, like, like now.

Jaye Wilson: 19:42

Right, right.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 19:43

So I would encourage whoever, just talk about it. It, it don't be shy about it, whether it's your disability, your blindness, or whatever else you got going on. The more we talk about it, the more you're gonna find those groups like the National Federation for the Blind or the Commission for the Blind or whatever else is out there. If you don't talk about it, you're never, you're never gonna know.

Jaye Wilson: 20:01

It's true. It's true. And I think like you're, oh my God, you're just dropping so many gems here.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 20:06

Oh, let's do it.

Jaye Wilson: 20:06

Yeah, this is just, I, I'm loving it. I'm loving this. All right. So I know like there's so many other things I feel like we can talk about and dive into. First thing I'm gonna ask you is I don't want this conversation to end. So can we invite you to come back another time?

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 20:21

Absolutely. I am free to come back whenever you want. Right now, I am a stay-at-home mom to my three beautiful girls.

Jaye Wilson: 20:27

Yay.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 20:28

As well as a grad school student. So you take me whenever you want.

Jaye Wilson: 20:31

All right. All right. So y'all heard her. We're gonna lock her back in for another episode.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 20:35

Absolutely.

Jaye Wilson: 20:36

I think that's so important, you know, just keep these conversations going.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 20:39

Yeah.

Jaye Wilson: 20:39

Um, and then my second question for you is how do you, you talked about hope. So, how do you utilize hope and resources as a way to navigate your momming in the margins?

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 20:55

Yeah. So I feel like on my side, when I'm thinking about hope, so a lot of people say that I'm an inspiration, right? And if I am great, I would love to be an inspiration to whomever I, I meet so they can move forward in their life and such. But I think I'm more looking to be an inspiration to the blind community. I could be an inspiration to a sighted person because I know how to cook while I'm blind, or I know how to possibly read braille or cross a busy, navigate, uh, a busy street. But to a blind person, those are all just normal stuff. Those are just normal behaviors. I want to be an inspiration to someone in the blind community so I can give them hope to say that this, your blindness is not your death sentence.

Jaye Wilson: 21:33

Yeah.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 21:33

You can move past this, you can move on. You're gonna have to learn new skills, but it's totally okay. So I want to give that hope to that person, to kind of switching my what that hope looks like, and then telling them there's so many resources out there. We live in 2025, we live in the, the realm of technology. My phone has this so many apps that are geared towards individuals who are blind. Let me show you how to use them. Let me show you how to do these different things that you can overcome your grieving stage of going blind. Go through your grieving stages. You you need that, but let's get past that. Let's get to the hope part, let's get to the acceptance part so we can learn these apps and we can cross these streets and we can take care of these babies and so forth and so on. This is not your death sentence. You do not have to lay down and have a pity party and sit on a couch and wait for somebody else to do it for you. Let's get up, let's figure it out, and let's, let's move forward.

Jaye Wilson: 22:24

I love it. Yes, I love it. Thank you so much.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 22:26

Absolutely.

Jaye Wilson: 22:27

Your words are, they are inspirations. You know.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 22:30

Thank you.

Jaye Wilson: 22:30

I think that it, it does shift the way that people perceive what you can or cannot do with a disability.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 22:38

Yeah.

Jaye Wilson: 22:39

You know?

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 22:39

There's very limited things that you cannot do.

Jaye Wilson: 22:41

It's true.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 22:42

Yeah.

Jaye Wilson: 22:42

It's true.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 22:43

I can't drive. I will not drive. I promise you, I will not get behind the wheel unless there is a self-driving car out there that wants to, you know, put me on. Cool. But other than that, I will not fly a plane. I won't get behind the wheel. I won't go to combat. Cool. I'm totally okay with that. But there, other than that there's, I can do it. I can do it.

Jaye Wilson: 23:01

Jennifer, you are hilarious. I love it. I love it. I love it. I need that.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 23:06

Yes.

Jaye Wilson: 23:07

You are an inspiration and you're, you are going to inspire so many more moms who may not understand how to ask these questions. One of the things that always comes up is how we have such a wide community of moms, and we'll ask them, how can I support you? But if they're in a new situation or an emergent situation, they may not have the questions. They may not know what to say. Learning how to navigate losing your sight or learning how to navigate your child losing their sight, giving them hope and tools is the way that they're going to be able to change their own perception while their perception is changing.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 23:44

Yeah. One thing I heard some time ago, something that's totally unrelated, but I kind of hold on to it is you don't know what you don't know.

Jaye Wilson: 23:50

Yep.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 23:51

Right. So if you are recently going blind, if your child recently went blind, no matter what age you are, you don't know what you don't know. You can't ask me a question if you don't know it.

Jaye Wilson: 23:58

It's true.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 23:59

So I'm going to come to you as a blind individual and say, okay, we're going to start simple. Everybody got a cell phone, right? Let's get your cell phone. Let's turn voiceover on. Let's figure out how to work that. You need to eat. Let's figure out how to cook. How do we get food? Right. You need to go grocery shopping. Let's, let's pull up different apps that are helpful to get you food in your house so you can cook it. Let's start small. And then as we go, you're going to have more questions to ask me. But at the moment, you don't know what you don't know.

Jaye Wilson: 24:25

That's right.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 24:25

You're just in shock. Let me help you get through that shock.

Jaye Wilson: 24:28

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for your voice. Thank you for your advocacy. Thank you for your motherhood. You this fly girl.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 24:35

Thank you, thank you.

Jaye Wilson: 24:36

Thank you. Thank you.

Jennifer Evans-Rice: 24:38

Thank you.

Jaye Wilson: 24:38

Thank you. All right, y'all. If you're not inspired by Jennifer's story, then I don't know what else to say. And that was just part one. So you must make sure to tune into part two to get more of that inspiration as we continue to dig into all the intersections of what momming in the margins means. Melinated Mommy Talks the Podcast is your place for authentic and raw conversations about what it means to be a melanated mom. So make sure to subscribe on all of the platforms where you listen to your favorite podcasts. Make sure to like and share. And if you want to continue seeing our podcast grow, make sure to become a paid subscriber for exclusive bonus content or become a donating listening supporter. If you're interested in becoming an individual or corporate sponsor of this podcast, go to melinatedmoms.com/podcast for more information. We can't wait to have you with us in our next episode. So keep listening, stay connected, and stay tapped in.