Bethesda firefighters works to give one their own the gift of sight

Amber Mills wants the most simple thing – to see her husband.

She has cerebral palsy and is legally blind and uses a blind person’s cane – and volunteers with the ladies auxiliary at Bethesda Volunteer Fire Department in York County where her husband is a volunteer and assistant chief.

After the tornado of 2011 blew through York County, Amber Mills was among those who helped collect windblown items. She guarded items she could barely see and helped families find their memories because she knows what it is to lose what you have.

“Amber is a fighter – she has never thought of herself as disabled,” said her grandmother, Judy Greenway. “She has fought all her life.”

She is married but has never clearly seen her firefighter husband, Tim.

She went to college until she could not see enough to do the work anymore.

She made jewelry until she could not see the materials.

She walks with a cane. If she hits a bump or an unseen crack or curb she falls.

She has never seen a rainbow, or an airplane streaking across the sky. Or her cat, Bootsy.

“She has done more in her life than most people ever will,” said Amber’s mother, Daris Greenway.

Mills’ cerebral palsy has been a lifetime of struggles and surgeries and hospitals. Her eyesight has always been a problem and has worsened the last decade.

Her condition keeps her from being all she wants to be: an interior designer.

She has a talking thermometer and a special computer and large-print materials.

But, her family says, her condition cannot be fixed.

This phenomenal woman starts to cry when she says, “I want to read a book again. I want to see my husband. I want to be independent. I want to live my dreams.”

She needs special eyeglasses – a machine, really, called Esight. She went to a demonstration, wore the glasses, and it took her breath away.

“I can see!” Amber told everybody.

She cries when she thinks about it.

“It was awesome to see,” Mills said.

The glasses, which have a high-definition camera, cost $15,000.

Amber Mills and her family are working people who don’t have $15,000.

She doesn’t qualify for assistance for blind or disabled people’s programs. The family and fire department and others have spent months raising money to help her. There were donation jars and yard sales and firefighter benefits. About $10,000 has been raised. That leaves a big $5,000.

“We at the fire department have seen what a person Amber is, and one way or another we are going to get her those glasses,” said Michell Plott, president of the ladies auxiliary at Bethesda.

Mills’ mother, Daris Greenway, said she is so proud of her daughter who volunteers, and fights, and struggles, and never gives up.

“We want her to be able to see,” Greenway said.

Out at Bethesda, the tough and strong rural people of the department are all volunteers. They receive nothing for helping people and do it anyway. Amber Mills, for five years without sight, has been there doing all she can for strangers.

“Life is all about helping somebody else when they need it,” Mills said.

And Mills hopes that soon she can put on her special glasses – and help some more.

This story was originally published December 12, 2015 at 4:05 PM with the headline "Bethesda firefighters works to give one their own the gift of sight."