Always an active and spunky sort of personality, Mary Ann was driving to work in 1993 when she suddenly found herself in need of medical treatment. A car accident ruptured several disks in her spine. She was whisked into emergency surgery to repair the disks. While on the operating table, she suffered a stroke and emerged from surgery with absolutely no vision—blind. For Mary Ann this was almost like a death sentence. She said she felt as if she was in “hell”.