Site to Site, Unsighted: A Blind Woman’s Journey

By Poppy Sundeen

Twenty years ago, Nicole Massey’s world changed abruptly. The sudden onset of blindness forced the college student to rethink everything. One of the most pressing issues was transportation. “At first, I was relying on the kindness of friends to get to campus,” she says. “Then I’d feel my way along walls, bumping into benches.”

Nicole soon realized that her original plan — getting a Bachelor of Music degree and teaching a high school jazz band — was no longer practical. “My goal at that point was just to get my degree. I wanted to get that accomplished.”

She did indeed accomplish that — and so much more. Today, Nicole is adept at navigating life as a blind person. She walks confidently with a cane. She cooks. She writes both music and fiction. And she knows how to get around the Dallas area using buses, light rail and paratransit.

Learning the ropes

“I figured things out in dribs and drabs, mostly by asking questions,” says Nicole. One thing she knew for sure was that she’d need to rely on Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART). “I went through their process for the disabled, and because I’m blind, they issued me a DART picture ID that allows me to travel on the bus or train for free.”

For a number of years, she rode DART in the company of Guardian, a yellow Labrador Retriever guide dog. “If I was at a light rail station and the train wasn’t there, Guardian would divert me and keep me from stepping off the platform.”

Using the DART system, Nicole managed to get where she needed to go, although some of the trips involved multiple buses and/or trains. She recalls one expedition from her home to a mall in North Garland, a store at Mockingbird and Abrams and then back home as an all-day affair. “It took eight buses and a light rail train, and we had to go through downtown to make it work.”

Paratransit to the rescue

Nicole’s blindness made her eligible for DART paratransit. Using Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines, the program offers qualified participants curb-to-curb transportation for just three dollars a trip.

“During Covid, paratransit was restricted. At one point, I had to carry a letter saying that I was on dialysis.”

It wasn’t until 2018 — the year she was diagnosed with kidney failure — that Nicole began using paratransit regularly. Her treatment called for dialysis three days a week, making the need for reliable transportation vital to her health. To complicate matters, the dialysis clinic was in Mesquite, and at the time, Mesquite wasn’t served by DART buses and trains. “I knew paratransit had to be an option, because there weren’t any other ones.”

Nicole contacted DART and learned how to set up rides. “At first, I was calling in the day before each trip. Then I did a little more research and found out about subscriptions.” Subscription service enabled her to book ahead for convenience.

The good, the bad and the memorable DART contracts with taxi services to fulfill many of its paratransit requests. Because drivers vary, the experience does as well. Nicole considers most, but not all, of her taxi rides successful. “I had a time or two when a driver took me to the wrong place. I was lucky to catch them before they left.” She points out that if she hadn’t stopped them in time, she could have called for someone to pick her up, although it might have caused a few problems. Other rides have presented unexpected delights. “One driver was listening to Prince,” she recalls, “so I asked him to turn the volume way up, and we bopped all the way there.”

A happy ending

These days, Nicole doesn’t use paratransit very often for a very fortuitous reason: no more dialysis, thanks to successful kidney transplant surgery in 2021. With three-day-a-week treatments behind her, Nicole has more time to work on her writing and other interests.

She continues to be a fan of transit, but is reluctant to use it when traveling alone. “It’s so much simpler for sighted people, because there’s a code on every bus stop sign you can use to identify the route and tell you when the bus will arrive based on current traffic.”

Nicole hopes that one day DART bus stops will be linked to a popular wayfaring app for the visually impaired. “I use Nearby Explorer Online to tell me the addresses of where I’m walking, whether it’s a business and what kind. I wish DART could to tap into that and identify bus stops. It would make things so much easier for blind folks.”

Until then, she’ll continue to take the bus with sighted companions and grab the occasional ride with friends. Those who do her a favor can expect to be richly compensated with interesting conversation and a dose of inspiration.

Genesis 4:8-16

8 Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him.

9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”

10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!

11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

12 When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”

13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!

14 Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.”

15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him.

16 Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Continued from page 2 they had. Cain was a farmer; Abel was a shepherd. Cain couldn’t have offered a piece of meat if he wanted to.

Other commentators say that God rejected Cain’s offering because he didn’t make it with a pure heart. But those readings give God more credit than deserved for knowing what’s in Cain’s heart.

The God we’ve come to know so far in the creation story seems to be learning about the humans at the same time they are learning about God, who is surprised that the humans ate from the one tree they were told not to touch. God stands an armed cherubim at the garden gates in a sign of uncertainty about what the humans are capable of doing. And we see in this text that God is genuinely surprised to learn that Cain killed his brother.

The Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” he said, “I do not know, am I my brother’s keeper?” And the Lord said, “What have you done?”

We shouldn’t be naive to the fact that the first murder in the bible is committed immediately after the first worship service. The futile one, the back-up plan, the nothing brother, is erased.

The story ends with a profound measure of grace. God doesn’t kill Cain in return, but the grace is complicated. Cain is cast out of his family and forced to settle east of the garden in the land of Nod. He is marked in a way that protects him from others but also identifies him as a murderer.

The impulse to erase the innocent

In his name and with his blood-stained hands, a civilization will be built and named after him, which is the creation story of all the world’s empires. They all depended on someone being erased.

Rome was named after a man that murdered his own brother. And it was built on the tragic lie that goes like this: For me to be, someone else must be erased. That tragic lie excused the erasure of North American natives and colonized and enslaved Africans, Japanese Americans during World War II, European Jews during the holocaust, Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, Tutsis in Rwanda, and Ukrainians minding their business beside Russia.

The impulse to erase the innocent is as old as time. And so is God’s preference to protect them. I’ve been telling us that we shouldn’t be naive to certain facts of the creation story, but maybe we should. There is no easy answer to God’s preference for Abel’s offering rather than Cain’s, until you notice that the rest of the bible is a story of Abels. From Abel to Jesus, God persistently takes the side of people with their backs against the wall, the nothing brothers and sisters, the one’s whose life stories are titled “futility.”

This text tempts us to choose between the two brothers, to pick a side. Don’t. None of us are 100% Abels or 100% Cains. We are both.

This text tempts us to choose between the two brothers, to pick a side. Don’t. None of us are 100% Abels or 100% Cains. We are both.

Ultimately, the difference between them was their voice. Up to this point, we hear from every character in the creation story. Adam talks, Eve talks, Cain talks, God talks, even the serpent talks. All of them are quoted defending themselves, explaining their sin, manipulating others.

The only character that never speaks is Abel. The creation story will always be unfinished, until and unless someone speaks for him. May it be so.

Reverend Amos Jerman Disasa is senior pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas.