EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE: Blind of disability

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Sometimes you cross paths with someone and it makes you go… hmm. A couple weeks ago a man came up and introduced himself to me. It was a short chat. Twenty minutes later I walked back up to him and we chatted some more.

His name is Powell Dayed. He has several disabilities. The more we talked, the more I was amazed at his extraordinary life. This week’s Extraordinary Person of the Week is “blind of disability.”

Inside the Chestnut Street Presbyterian Church you’ll find beautiful music. You’ll also find a beautiful soul.

“If I can touch just one person,” Dayed said, “just one with a disability through my music and words of encouragement, then my life is worth living.”

Living. It’s something many of us take for granted every day.

“I do have a disability,” Dayed said. “Cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. I do not let my disabilities stop me.”

Dayed has been playing music for 42 years now.

“Just getting out of bed sometimes is a struggle,” he said.

A struggle he doesn’t live alone.

“Believe me,” Dayed said of the challenges, “many times I have wanted to throw in the towel and give up, but so many friends, constituencies, especially the the family members here at Chestnut Street Presbyterian Church, they have given me the necessary push.”

A push Dayed pays forward.

“I have spoken to several friends of mine who are also disabled,” Dayed said, “and they heard me many times, and they have said that I can’t do that, but I would love to do that. And my response to that is you might not be able to do what I do musically, but you do have a talent. Once you find what that talent is, it’s up to you to put that talent to use.”

Did I mention Dayed was born blind?

“When my mother passed away I had no knowledge that it was written in the will that if I should pass the (medical) test, that I should get her corneas,” he said.

Dayed passed those tests and is a successful cornea transplant recipient.

He now sees through his mothers eyes.

“It’s like being reborn,” he said of the transition. “Everything that I knew when I was blind wasn’t. I thought everybody looked the same, looked alike, dressed alike, did the same thing. Everything I learned when I was blind, I had to learn all over again.”

Powell Dayed, you are the perfect pitch. You, my friend, are extraordinary.

If you know someone who is extraordinary too, send me an email at dseamans@wwaytv3.com.
-Daniel