A visit with Tootsie

Hello from the Amodt Inn, the lovely Orlando home of my sister Marilee and her husband Rick Amodt — just got back from giving a short presentation at their granddaughter’s preschool. Experience has taught me that preschoolers have a hard time grasping what blindness is (much less formulating questions about it), but who could resist an invite from a three-year-old sweetheart named Toots?

Okay, okay, that’s not her real name. It’s just what I call her.

One of them is sitting on a dog.

The kids were all seated criss-cross applesauce when we arrived, and I started the presentation by asking Kennedy for permission to call her Toots in front of her friends. “No, Aunt Beth,” she answered, sounding a bit indignant. “I’m Tootsie.” So Tootsie it was. In exchange, all the kids there called me Aunt Beth.

Their teacher, who boasts the remarkable name Ms. Schooley, had read my children’s book Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound to the children the day before we arrived, and after that the kids had taken turns playing pretend: some were blind, and some were puppies. “A couple puppies ran their blind people into tables,” she told me. “But everyone survived.”

I kept my presentation short, and Tootsie came to the front afterwards to call on her school friends who had questions. Or, I should say, statements.

• • I have a cat.
  • Aunt Beth, your picture is up there on the wall
  • Yesterday I was the puppy, and Olivia was my blind lady.
  • Aunt Beth, your dog is licking itself.
  • I’m sitting on a dog.

It was reverse roles, kind of Jeopardy-for-preschoolers. They had the answers, I posed the questions. “What’s your cat’s name? and “Which did you like better, being blind or being the puppy? Ms. Schooley must have noticed the dumbfounded look on my face after that last statement about sitting on a dog: she explained how each carpet tile was a different letter of the alphabet. Nolan was sitting on D for dog. The kids took it from there, each child letting me in on which letter they were sitting on. “I’m on I, for igloo!” “I’m on Z, for zebra.” And with that, Tootsie sat down again. She wanted to call out her letter, too. ”I’m on X, for X-Ray!”

Ms. Schooley stepped in then with a compliment. “That’s all very good,“ she said. “But does anyone have a question? Luke’s hand shot up. “I do! I do!” he said. “Aunt Beth, Did you know I’m four years old?