With no vision, Norfolk man walks by faith, not sight

NORFOLK

Melvin Fields stood at the corner of 26th Street and Colley Avenue, waiting to cross.

He'd have to cross two lanes of Colley going north, a median, then two lanes headed south. Until 15 years ago, he was just Melvin Fields and getting to the other side would have been easy. Then there was an accident, and he became Melvin the Blind Guy.

He went to a rehab center in Richmond to learn how to cook, clean up, sew, read Braille. And maybe the most life-endangering daily task of all: how to use a walking stick and cross a street.

Melvin tapped the street, just over the curb on Colley Avenue, and cocked his head to the left. A truck rattled past, then a cop car. Then Melvin heard what he listens for: a surge of traffic to his right. He tapped with his stick and started crossing.

It must require a mountain of faith to take that first step. Melvin calls it "walking by faith and not by sight." He walks all around Park Place and Ghent.

He strayed to the right and got halfway across to find himself in the intersection instead of on the median. Tap, tap, tap. He hit the curb to his left, stepped on a row of liriope grass and found his island. Halfway.

He rubbed the cane over the surface, found a rubber grid, stood and listened for another surge. A car cut in front of him to make a right on red. Melvin walked, tapped the stick with his left hand, and held his right hand in the air as though swearing to tell the whole truth.

Tap left, tap right, tap left, tap right, and he was on the other side.

Safe, until he'd have to turn around and go back home.