Charlotte 115

Charlotte in Bonn bifocals with a story (part 2):

When my Dublin grandmother stayed with me in
Holland, I suggested that she should have her eyes
tested - maybe it was time for her to switch to
bifocals. She did the test and got a prescription for
bifocals with a +1.25 reading addition. We chose a
lovely metal frame and a few weeks later her glasses
arrived in Dublin. The next time I stayed in Dublin
I noticed that she had switched back to her old single
vision glasses, sliding them up and down her nose.
I enquired about the bifocals and she said that she
did not like the thickness of the lenses. So I took the
bifocals back to Holland and ordered thinner lenses
for her. She was happy with the new lenses and then
gradually started using her bifocals. The optician had
given me the thicker lenses and I fitted them in an old
"Bonn" frame, bought at the Amsterdam flea market
some years earlier. With two seas between her and me,
the relationship did not last, but we still have a friendly
occasional contact. Last year I called her and she told
me that she had her eyes operated. She was now down
from +8.00 to +1.50. I said, you must be relieved -
but she wasn't: "All of a sudden I look so old, with all
the wrinkles.... Nobody ever saw those when I still had
the strong glasses and neither did I!".