Marie-Hélène

I’m Marie-Hélène, an Orientation and Mobility Specialist at the MAB-Mackay. Each year, I’m proud to work with people who are blind or visually impaired, helping them learn how to navigate their environment safely and with confidence.

If you’ve read Enza’s letter from earlier this spring, you may be already familiar with her journey. What you may not know is that I had the privilege of walking alongside her for much of it. When I first met Enza, she’d already been living with vision loss for many years.

Despite being functionally blind, she was working full-time, highly independent, and incredibly resourceful. She had created her own system of workarounds to compensate for her condition, such as memorizing spaces, avoiding busy corridors, and reading important documents late at night when her eyes were less fatigued. But even with all of that, she was reaching her limit. Enza could tell that her vision loss was progressing. Everyday tasks were becoming more challenging, and the strategies she once relied on were no longer enough. She knew it was time to find new tools to stay independent, and that’s when she reached out to the MAB-Mackay for support.

The work I do as an Orientation and Mobility Specialist is about more than teaching techniques to walk safely and travel in the community. It’s about restoring confidence and helping people feel like themselves again.

At our first session, Enza told me she wasn’t ready to use a white cane. For many people, including Enza, a mobility aid represents a significant change. Not just a change in how they navigate the world, but also a change in how they’re perceived. At that time, she felt she could continue managing with a few new strategies. So, we started somewhere else. We started with trust.

We looked at what was still working for her, and where her methods were falling short. We talked openly about her needs, her goals, and the kind of support that might help her regain the freedom she feared was slipping away.

At the MAB-Mackay, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Every individual is different. My role is to meet each person where they are and help them move forward on their own terms. It’s a gradual process, built on honesty, collaboration, and care.

Over time, Enza began to shift her perspective. She realized that using the right tools wasn’t giving something up—it was claiming something back. When she finally decided that she was ready to learn how to use a white cane a few months later, she committed fully.

We began in familiar places, starting indoors at the MAB-Mackay—in the gym, down the hallways, up and down the staircases—before moving out into the surrounding neighbourhood. Once she felt confident with the techniques, we trained in her own community: walking to her sister’s and father’s homes, visiting local grocery stores and boutiques, and navigating métro stations like Mont-Royal and Sherbrooke, where she met friends or attended pottery classes. She has an excellent sense of orientation, and she worked hard to master each route. I’ll never forget when Enza showed up for a session one day and told me she had returned home alone at night making her way from the métro station to her home all by herself.

It may sound small. But for someone living with vision loss, moving confidently through the world after dark is an incredible achievement. To Enza, this journey wasn’t just about mobility. It about reclaiming space, self-trust, and embracing life on her own terms.

Moments like that are made possible because of the support behind her—the time, space, and trust to learn and grow.

We had worked together on night travel. The vision Enza relied on during the day wasn’t as useful after dark, so she learned other strategies. She learned how to use the sounds of traffic and the glow of city lights to stay oriented and safe. But that final step? Choosing to go out alone, on her own terms? That was hers alone!

I don’t take moments like that for granted.

These transformations don’t happen overnight. They require time, consistency, and personalized support—support that’s only possible because of donors.

Generosity towards the Habilitas Foundation helps fund essential Orientation and Mobility training for people like Enza. It gives them the freedom to go where they want, do what they love, and take part in the world again.

With continued support, we can meet each person with the tools, time, guidance, and flexibility they need to grow at their own pace, and in their own way. But there are still so many others waiting to take that first step.

Enza is now retired and thriving. Thanks in part to your encouragement, she continues to live actively, contribute meaningfully, and even to give back through the Foundation to the MAB- Mackay – the place that supported her through one of life’s hardest transitions.

Her story is only one of many. And today, you have the power to help write the next one.

Marie-Hélène
Orientation and Mobility Specialist, MAB-Mackay

P.S. Imagine for a moment how important your vision is to your everyday life, and what it may mean to lose it. How would you get around your home and your community safely? For more than 100 years, the MAB-Mackay has contributed to independence, dignity, and quality of life for people facing blindness and visual impairments.