From the time she was born, Rose K. has had to overcome poverty and setbacks. When she lost her vision in the early 1990s, she was not sure where to turn. But with determination and help from a few organizations, including Braille Institute, she launched a meaningful career helping others, and has received accolades as well.
Her father worked for the Santa Fe Railroad, and until she was school age, she lived with her parents and siblings in a boxcar that was equipped with little more than beds and a stove. Wherever the railroad sent her dad, the family followed. When her dad was 30, he was killed in a car accident. Her mother then went to work on a chicken farm in San Bernardino, California, and Rose, as the eldest sibling, took care of her three sisters starting when she was 10 years old.
“My mom became an alcoholic,” Rose says. “She didn’t leave food for us, so we had to steal. We’d also steal clothes off people’s clothes lines. It was unbelievable what I had to do at such a young age.” At 14, hope arrived when her mom remarried. “She didn’t have to work anymore, but she was abusive. At 18, I got married. I just wanted out.”
Rose had always had poor vision, but it wasn’t until she was 27 that she visited an eye doctor because she was having trouble seeing at night. She was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a rare genetic eye disease. By then she had two sons. A few years later, her eldest son was also diagnosed with RP.
“I was devastated, because I had a four-month-old baby and a five-year-old,” she says. “How could this happen?” Ten years later, her husband told her he wanted a divorce. “I tried to think, ‘What will I do with my life?’”
In 1993, with her vision nearly all gone, she was able to get a guide dog. “Then I said to myself that I need to meet people,” she said. Her eye doctor referred her to Braille Institute’s Coachella Valley Center, which sent a mobility instructor. “They helped me learn how to get to and take the bus so I could go to the grocery story. Later, I got braver and would take the dog on the bus. I went into survival mode. It had a lot to do with my upbringing. I decided I would show people, and in my early 40s, I enrolled in the College of the Desert.”
Rose received her credential to be a massage therapist and then studied to become a drug and rehabilitation counselor. She also took acting classes, and after a friend introduced her to a casting agent, she began modeling in Palm Springs, in fashion shows and for magazines. One night after class, while walking with her guide dog on campus, she lost her bearings and fell eight feet into a ditch. Though she survived with only bad scrapes, she was ready to quit school. She credits her youngest son, then 15, with motivating her to complete her degree. “He literally carried me to class,” she says. She graduated in 1995, receiving a standing ovation during commencement when she walked across the stage with her guide dog.
After an internship at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, which treats people with substance dependence, she was hired as a massage therapist at the Healing Arts Center in Palm Desert before being hired full time as a massage therapist and counselor back at the Betty Ford Center. “I loved it there,” she says. “As a massage therapist with no vision, I could feel more. I was helping people. I had a great reputation.” She worked there for 15 years, until the center turned more to telehealth and virtual treatment during the COVID pandemic.
In recent years, Rose has achieved new accomplishments. First, she wrote and published a children’s book called, “Wosie the Blind Little Bunny.” In the story, her main character and other animals learn to cope with their disabilities and life challenges and learn how to help others in need. Rose visited the Braille Institute Library at the Los Angeles Center for a reading of the book to children with visual impairments. Then in 2019, she won the title of Ms. Senior Palm Springs, going on to win second place in Ms. Senior California. She also launched a new career as a motivational speaker, speaking to groups at numerous organizations, including Braille Institute. Rose always ends her presentations by raising her arms in the air and saying, “As Rose’s life has dimmed, Rose will continue to soar.”
Rose returned to Braille Institute as a student in 2024 to learn more about technologies available through her iPhone. “I think it’s a wonderful service for the blind,” she says. “I would like to learn to be more independent. If I can do it, anyone can do it. I don’t think anything is impossible. There are only two things I can’t do: drive and paint my nails. I have a full life. I’m so blessed.”
