JILL MONTALBANO

Woman learning to cope with loss of sight

Jill Montalbano, 57, with her dog Rosie. She has lost much of her eyesight and is now living with her mother, who suffers from dementia.

By LESLIE GRAY STREETER
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

“I can’t believe that is my life,” says Jill Montalbano of Boca Raton as she recounts her journey from successful married businesswoman to depressed, displaced, legally blind woman.

You realize this could happen to anyone. Even you.

There are two Jills. There’s the big-haired Long Island girl — “You know Marissa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny? That was me” — who with her then-husband had owned beauty salons all over the country, including Hawaii, New York and Boca Raton. And there’s the one that in her late 30s got a “weird feeling” in her right eye.

Endless tests couldn’t determine why she became one of only 473 people worldwide to develop what’s called Acute Zonal Ocular Outer Retinopathy.

Even as she completely lost her peripheral vision in that eye, she kept going for a while, working as the vision in her right began to rapidly decrease. She figured she could do hair with one eye. And she did — until that rueful feeling developed in her left eye, and then the “devastating” panic of knowing what was to come.

Montalbano uses a video magnifier to read a to-do list at her home.

Montalbano, 57, lost more than her sight. She lost her marriage, her ability to drive, her independence, her career, her father and then, most recently, her home.

That meant she and dog Rosie had to move in with her mother, who has developed dementia and has recently lost her husband.

“(At first) she seemed so overwhelmed, but small accomplishments help her realize that just because she’s blind, it doesn’t mean her life is over,” said Mary Allen, director of the Lighthouse For The Blind of the Palm Beaches. “She’s had a real hard time realizing that and has had to build up her confidence. But she’s very motivated.”

Montalbano draws support from her sweet Rosie, as well as from her boyfriend, Joe Martino, an old friend from New York who now comes down from St. Petersburg each weekend to help.

What keeps her going is the desire to help her mother — “If I had my sight, I could help her better,” she says.

JILL’S WISH

Jill could use a new computer (and one year of service) with Screen Reader software, optical character recognition, either Open Book or K-1000, an accessible book player, either VR Stream or Book Sense, a money ID and color ID device, a UPC Code scanner for grocery shopping, a Trekker Breeze accessible GPS for her cane, veterinary care for her dog Rosie for a year, help with transportation and housekeeping.

NOMINATED BY
Lighthouse For The Blind of the Palm Beaches