This one, Sun City residents, is for all of you facing serious health issues that are forcing you to make major lifestyle or leisure time activity changes.
Imagine this scenario – you’re a lifetime bowler who believes that a night of bowling with family or friends is one of the best things you do. Then you notice problems with your vision, and you check with physicians. You are told you have cataracts, and maybe some other issues. Eventually you get the serious bad news: macular degeneration. There is no cure for it. Your eyes are failing. You are left with 20% of vision in your right eye, and 10% in your left.
Between his two eyes, Crom only has about 30% of his sight, yet he bowls about a 140 average. (Photos by Chris LaPelusa/Sun Day)
Meet Bob Crom (pronounced like chrome). This Sun City resident of 15 years has an uplifting story about how to react positively to bad health news. His answer to his condition?
“No, I am not going to quit bowling just because I can’t see normally. I’m going to make some adjustments that will allow me to continue doing what I love best,” he said.
In the past two years, Bob has been hit with two major health-related issues. In October 2014, his wife of 60 years, Thelma (nicknamed Dolly) died after a long battle with an illness. Then, last May, he went to an area restaurant with his daughter and son and suddenly discovered that he couldn’t see anything. A doctor said he had suffered a hemorrhage related to macular degeneration. There is no cure for it, but treatments can control or retard it. Surgery was performed in August, and though doctors saved part of his vision, he was left legally blind.
He had a lifetime 185 bowling average but now he couldn’t see the pins at the other end of the lane.
“A few years earlier, I developed cataracts, and had laser surgery, and for a while I has much improved vision,” Bob recalled. “I had distance and reading implants installed in each eye, so I could drive and watch TV and read normally. But then one day in May of this year the macular degeneration occurred, and I suddenly lost most of my sight.”
For many bowlers, that might have been the end of nights at the lanes. But not for Crom. He decided he wasn’t going to let this setback keep him away from his favorite activity. “When I met Dolly more than 60 years ago, we discovered we both liked to bowl, and we used to date at the alleys. It was the cheapest thing we could do when we didn’t have a lot of money. We enjoyed an evening of bowling followed by dinner at a local restaurant, and bowling remained a big part of our lives all through our marriage,” said Crom.
Faced with his vision loss, Crom devised a unique way to adapt to his situation. He obtained a small pair of binoculars (the kind you can carry in your pocket), and brought it to his Wednesday bowling days at Brunswick. “The lanes are light-colored, so I can see enough so I know where to stand and take my shot,” he said. ”I’ve bowled a long time, so I know how to deliver the ball. I can’t see the pin fall, so before I roll my second ball, I take out my binoculars and check to see what pins are left, so I know how to roll my second ball.”
The result? He maintains a 140 average. That’s fine with him, since scoring big isn’t the main point now, but being able to continue bowling is.
This story came to reality through the efforts of John Briatta, a Sun Citian and fellow member of the Sun City league. Briatta was bowling on a nearby lane one recent day when he noticed Crom use his binoculars after his first ball.
“I asked him why he did that and he explained about his vision loss,” Briatta said. “I had no idea he was going through such a serious problem, because Bob never talked about it. I thought it was so inspiring and interesting that I suggested to him that he had a story worth telling. We agreed that it would be an inspiration and instructive to other people going through similar problems,” Briatta said.
Crom is a native of Chicago’s north side and worked many years in the printing business in the Chicago area. Ironically, at the age of 59, he hooked up with an eye doctor’s staff, transporting patients to and from appointments and hospital visits.
“I thought it was just a temporary job at the time,” Crom recalled, “but it lasted almost 20 years.”
When his wife became ill, his vision problems were starting, but Bob and Dolly agreed that neither of them would ever go to a nursing home, and one would be a caregiver to the other if necessary. Bob took care of his wife until her death.
Bob Crom, adapting and keeping on truckin’, no matter what.
