A Letter to Myself Podcast: A couple's journey in navigating blindness and not losing sight of love
Nuraziana Mohamed Said and Mohamed Iskandar Misran initially felt isolated when they started to lose their vision as children. They tell Joel Chua how they found one another and changed each other's lives.
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Married couple Nuraziana Mohamed Said and Mohamed Iskandar Misran share many common interests, including a love for music.
But there is something else that binds them together. They were both diagnosed as visually impaired when they were children. Although they started out as fierce academic rivals in school, the couple found themselves drawn to each other - once more - a decade later.
In this episode, Nuraziana and Iskandar share with Joel Chua how their love strengthens one another and why they are using music and podcast to advocate for persons with disabilities.
An excerpt from Nuraziana and Iskandar's conversation with Joel Chua:
Nuraziana on learning about her condition:
I was only nine, and I was already losing my peripheral vision bit by bit. But being a nine-year-old girl, I didn't know what was happening, because everything seemed normal to me. I could still play. I could still walk and run, just like any other kid.
One night, I was almost hit by a car when I was crossing a small road ... My family thought I could see so I was walking playfully behind them, and then when my mother turned around, I was actually just walking across the road and the car almost hit me.
So the next day, she brought me to see a specialist doctor, and I was then diagnosed with glaucoma, quite a terminal stage at that time ... We had to do some urgent surgeries within a few weeks to save the remaining eyesight that I had, so that I wouldn't turn totally blind.
Iskandar on learning to accept himself:
I started in a normal school with many friends. Then, when my eyesight started to deteriorate, I began to pull away from my friends during recess time; I would stay alone.
Until I was transferred to Singapore School for the Visually Handicapped. There, I met friends with the same condition as me. So from there I (began to have) the confidence to execute .. and learn more things and to have a better future.
For me, I'm a very homely person, and my mother, despite my (limited) vision, she didn't give me any 'discounts' when doing housework.
So I'm quite trained in doing housework. Most of the house chores are on me ... I depend on (Iskandar) a lot, on travelling out of the house. So in a way, we support each other and we complement each other, and throughout our marriage, of course, we learn from each other as well.
On how their love has given them more courage:
Nuraziana: I don't take my other senses for granted. I lost my vision, but I know I can make use of my other senses as best as I can, and I did not want my visual impairment to be a burden to my family, my parents.
I want to give them happiness and give them that relief, that one day when they let me go, I'll be in good hands, and they don't have to worry so much about me. And of course, meeting my husband is a bonus, because he is my pillar of confidence. He gave me a lot more confidence than I was before I was married.
Iskandar:
I would also like to thank my wife because of her, (I have more) confidence in myself. I have more courage to do things that I like and (I know that) we'll go through (anything) together, whatever hurdles that we face.
(This interview was first broadcast on Dec 4, 2024.)
Listen to the conversation on A Letter to Myself. This podcast, hosted by Joel Chua, features people with remarkable life lessons to share and airs every weeknight on CNA938.
If you know someone with an inspiring story, write to cnapodcasts [at] mediacorp.com.sg (cnapodcasts[at]mediacorp[dot]com[dot]sg).
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