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DESCRIPTION
When he was a boy, he was certain that there were dangers looming in the dark of night. Little did that child know that later, while raising a family and climbing the corporate ladder, he would learn that he was becoming blind. As a man, he would think back to his childhood fears while living both day and night in darkness.
Through the stories of Patton, John’s Seeing Eye dog, we come to know a multifaceted life in which fear is conquered by love and faith. We also experience the incredible bond that exists between a master and his guide dog.
This inspirational memoir, told with humor and compassion, follows one man’s journey from light to dark and then forward into a new light. For although Patton’s master cannot see with his eyes, he has learned that the human adventure can be fully experienced through the heart and the mind.
A LITTLE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Hollenbach, after serving in the Marines during the Vietnam War, returned home to begin his career in a local business. Over the next twenty years he rose to become his company’s president and a community and church leader. Now retired, he and his wife Judy live in Perkasie, PA.
EXCERPT PREVIEW
When he was a boy, along with his brothers, he slept in the attic of their house. Because he, the last born of the family, was so much younger than they were, he had to go to bed long before the older boys. Nearly every evening he would have to go up the stairs alone, and for him that attic at night was a scary place. Who knew what lurked in the dark corners? What could it be that waited in the cubbyhole, that low closet where things were stored in the eaves under the back roof; what dangerous and alien beast might be waiting in there? Every night he’d turn on the light at the bottom of the steps and run to the top and across to his bed, not knowing what he might encounter.
But the family rule was that the overhead light had to be turned off; and the upstairs light switch was far across on the other side of that large, looming room. The challenge for him was to turn off that switch, get back to the bed, and hide in the covers before any of the mysterious and unknown night creatures could leap out of the darkness. Being pretty small, as hard as he tried he was never quite fast enough to reach the safety of his bed while there was still light. But his fear made him determined, and each night he raced across the room hoping to be out of harm's way before the dark descended into that frightening room. The memory of those nights and his childhood fear of the darkness stayed with him. And, once that boy became a man, he thought back to those early and very real fears alongside the truth that he would spend all of his days, as well as the nights, within the darkness of his blindness.
