VIDEO. In Ille-et-Vilaine, Alain is blind and “lives pretty much like everyone else”

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At 70 years old, Alain Prodhomme is impressive. Blind for 30 years after a accidenthe lives in quasi-autonomy in his small house in Romagné, near Fougères (Ille-et-Vilaine), and demonstrates a beautiful joy of living. Originally from the town where he lives, he was born in 1954. “I lived in farm from my parents to the service military. After the army, I became carpenter for almost 20 years. I got by not bad,” he says.

Serious accident at age 40

But the 1^is May 1994at the age of 40, he suffered a serious accident. “I got asleep while driving and I hit the head of a bridge. The stone of the bridge is returned to the passenger compartment and the flying from the car into my chin. »

Placed in prolonged coma for fifteen days, Alain wake up blind. Some time later it will be amputee of part of the right leg, due to a staphylococcus.

After two months in hospital from Pontchaillou (Rennes) and two years with his sister Marguerite, he moved to Paris to learn braillea writing and reading system based on raised dots. ” It was too earlyI had to do it grief from my sight before that,” he admits.

By force d’effortsAlain still managed to acquire this knowledge. From then on, “my life changed and the moral came back,” he recalls. What follows is a succession of discoveries and learning, such as the use of white cane. At the end of the 1990s, he joined Beaubois, a nursing home for people suffering from two handicapslocated in Côtes-d’Armor. “They did a lot to me lireit helped me a lot. »

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Cooking, cleaning, ironing…

Since then, Alain has learned to live better with his blindness. He demonstrates a optimism unfailing and lives “pretty much like everyone else”.

I have some problems, but who doesn't?

Pour communicateit has a Blind Shelland phone with keys on which the number 5, where a raised point appears, serves as a reference. But the device also plays the role of “web browser, alarm, calculator, calendarstopwatch, weather, unit converter, dictaphone… » One perfect arsenal to which is even added a function of recognition of colors.

The cuisine ? He loves it, especially the pastry shop – when he receives us, he has also prepared a delicious cake with apples. “Initially, I remember one time when I mixed the flour and sugar, but now I'm used to it, I know the locations of ingredients and I have a talking scale. »

A techniquealmost unstoppable, also allows it to never miss the cooking of the pastanor to have his lait which overflows: “I trust my finger. »

Writing in braille also plays a crucial role: “In my placardsI noted the location of each type of provision. I also put labels on my CDs to recognize them because I really like listening to musique. »

And despite his handicap, Alain only needs a few services: a home help comes six hours a week, to take him to do his coursesprepare him a meal and help him in his daily life.

The stayhe is the one who takes care of it: cleaning, cooking, washing and ironing the linen…The Romagnéen will even buy your bread on footin the town of the commune, helped by his white cane. As for administration, machine reads to him the documents he wants and he even receives his braille bank statements !

He summarizes the situation with his characteristic enthusiasm: “At the start, it was not not obviousbut you get used to it in the long run and with time, you succeed presque to do everything. »

A busy life

And don't think that Alain doesn't have a good life filled. “Every Thursday, I go to Droit de Cité (association supporting the social life of people with disabilities, editor’s note)I also do Nordic walkingdance, either in the form of gymnastics, or in the form of rhythmic dance: Toutouyoutou», he slips mischievously.

Recently he published a small book, After all, we only live one blowwith the help of a “pen writer”, Bernard Meslet. He tells his history his daily life and demonstrates his optimism.

He also hopes that it will help him ” meet someone local, a woman who would be interested in me. She should be gentleand pretty, but above all that she is kind “. For himself, Alain defines himself as someone pleasant social and smiling, elegantalso – he is all of that, certainly – someone who loves laugh and speak, but above all listen.

His blindness even gave him a sixth sensea finesse in his perception of what surrounds him. “I manage to to feel how are the people around me, for example I sense when a person is flirtatious . I also have hearing and smell very developed: I hear when the gutteris clogged or I feel when something is starting to burnin the pressure cooker, while those present don't realize it. »

So, Alain is blind, “Damn yes!” »but it is far from being resigned. And his personality,endearinghas something to inspire us.

People wishing to contact Alain Prodhomme (in particular to meet him and obtain his book) can go through the Droit de Cité Fougères association.

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