When I'm working in the workshop,
I feel that I do have more power.
I have control.
I feel like
maybe even someone's watching me,
but helping me
to make all of the
different things that I make.
And I love it, it just makes me happy.
Now that I'm deaf
and blind as well
it's been harder for me
to come to terms with it.
It's taken me 11 years to do all of what
I've done around the house,
and that's been my strength.
That's helped me to get through it.
So I do a lot of work in the garden
with bricks, I've done paving.
I put stuff in the wheelbarrow, and often
I'll find I've taken a path less travelled
and I've ended up somewhere
where I really don't want to be.
'I should have taken that right.'
So you've got to laugh.
So I have to backtrack and find the right path
to get where I was intending to go.
So sometimes it's funny.
You can see where the joints are.
I use my nails
and I follow the joint
with my nails.
And I can feel whether it's too far apart
or if it's slightly off, it's not square.
And if it's not, I'll take it apart
and redo it.
This one is good.
This one's good, this one's good.
So all four of them must be perfect.
And in order for it
to be really symmetrical.
These are all slotted into the back.
And so they all need to be cut
in particular ways so that they
fit into each other.
And, you know, this is
when I sort of tell you that I feel like I'm
guided for it,
by someone because, you know,
these are hard pieces to make.
Every day I do pray and I do ask that
Jesus looks after me and he watches over me.
And I feel that he does
because some things are hard
and I do work all day, I'm quite busy.
And I sort of thank him at the end of the day,
I'm tired
and at night I do thank him
for looking after me.
And I give you my love
because I do believe that he helps me
in the work that I'm doing.
Yeah, so it's like a mould, it's a guide.
So he works out what is the exact angle
this needs to be cut at.
So he has to put
all of that in,
so he has to be concentrating all
the time and thinking all of the time
because he needs to ensure
that he's actually done
all of these before he starts the process.
And time just goes so quickly
when I'm doing these sorts of things
because I'm so occupied And before I know it,
it's dark.
So I was born profoundly deaf.
My sight at that time was fine.
As time went by,
my vision did deteriorate.
I wasn't overly aware of it at first.
I started to notice
there was just some issues
with the work I was doing.
And my parents took me to an eye specialist
and they noticed that there was some
impairment in my vision.
They weren't 100% sure why at the time.
And really,
none of the procedures that I do
now have changed overly much during that time.
I just take more care.
But over time, I did notice that
my work was changing,
and I began to get really seriously
concerned and upset, very sad.
I didn't want to just be sitting down in a chair
doing nothing.
I didn't want to do that.
And it was really that I wanted to work.
I wanted to go to work.
I really do have to be strong
strong like a table.
Very, very strong.
There are some things that I need
a pair of eyes for, and she's them.
It's usually Angie I will call for
to come and find wherever I am,
and I'll ask her for help.
She's just a beautiful person.
She's a lovely lady.
She does so much for me.
Sometimes I can't see a spirit level
and whether something is perfectly level.
So she comes along and I use her eyes
to see if something's level.
This is what I've got to watch everyday.
Being deafblind,
it is hard.
But I have my wife.
I have my family.
I have the things that other people have.
I have the love of a wife.
I have a family, I have children.
And they give to me an awful lot of strength.
So I'm feeling very strong.
I'm feeling very strong.
And that's my story.