Blind Manassas Woman Overcomes Challenges By Teaching Neighbors Yoga

Thirty-year-old Jackie Piper is seated in a dimly lit, but warm room heated by a fireplace in the Sumner Lake clubhouse, where she teaches yoga to a small group of her neighbors.

Yoga has been one of her outlets since she lost her sight three years ago at age 27 because of uveitis, or inflammation of the eye, an auto immune disease she'd been diagnosed with as a child.

She and her now-husband, Newton, were teaching English in Thailand when a uveitis flare up in her left eye set off a chain reaction that ultimately changed her life. 

“They (Thai doctors) just were not able to get it under control," she said. "I came back to the (United) States for eye surgery and I hemorrhaged as a result of that surgery. It damaged my retina and my cornea in my left eye.”

Multiple retinal detachments followed eventually robbing the eye of sight.

It resulted in total blindness for her because she'd lost vision in her right eye at age 11 during a surgery to correct glaucoma caused by medication used to treat uveitis.

“I only had vision in my left eye. So I drove and I did my own thing as a sighted person and then this happened," she said. “I was devastated. I thought my life was over. I thought, ‘What am I suppose to do now?’”

She would soon find out.

Piper said she connected with a small yoga studio while attending the National Federation for the Blind Training Center in Littleton, Colo., for nine months to learn helpful skills.

“I’ve always been active. I use to teach jazzercise. I just knew I needed to find an outlet while I was there,” the McLean native said. “It’s what I needed to do. I needed to have yoga; I needed practice … I was fortunate to have yoga to center me.”

Using a combination of walking and public transportation, it took her an hour and a half to reach her classes at the Littleton Yoga Center, but she continue to go and eventually enrolled in a class for aspiring yoga instructors.

“It was different for sure,” Piper said. “My classmates, I’m sure, were wondering ‘how is she going to be able to take this class?’ but my instructors were helpful. I spoke up and said to them ‘you know, it’s really helpful for me if you demonstrate (the pose) on me. If I feel it in my body, then I know what the pose is; I know what they are talking about. What they are visually looking for I can feel in my body.”

Her technology instructor at the blind center taught her how to use her iPhone and a Bluetooth keyboard to take notes in her yoga instructors class, she said.

The blind center taught me that my life is not over and I can still do so many things,” she said. “Just because I don’t have my vision, I am not any less of a person.”

She completed her course in yoga instruction and her 9-month training at the blind center, then returned to Virginia where she and Newton married in May 2012.

The next month, Piper began teaching yoga at the Sumner Lake club house,  a short walk from where the couple lives.

The first class was June 18 and was attended by 22 Sumner Lake residents, many who find inspiration in Piper's story.

Piper said Yoga keeps her from being dissolved in self-pity because of her condition.

“I love teaching this class, my students are great,” Piper said as she prepared for class. “You just have to push through (challenges) and keep going. I’m still breathing, I’m still here.”

The class is only open to Sumner Lake residents. Drop in Mondays at 7 p.m. for just $10 or by a pack of five classes for $40.

Do you find Jackie's story inspiring? Tell us in the comments.