When 75-year-old David Scott, who has been a farmer all his life, lost his sight due to cataract two years ago, he had to give up the things he love most, tending his field and animals. But Scott is an optimist, so he held onto hope that he would some day be able to tend to his goats once more.

For a long 24 months, he confined himself to his home, fearing that he would be injured if he tried to venture outside. He also had difficulty sleeping at nights and would roam his house while everyone was asleep, which caused his ankles to swell.

“When you can’t see it makes you miserable and it is like you’re sick and a part of your life is gone,” he told the Sunday Observer, looking to the horizon from his verandah at Mountainside, St Elizabeth, his wife Olive seated beside him.

Scott, who was also a farm worker for five years, was scheduled to undergo treatment costing $15,000 at the Mandeville Hospital in November last year. However, the operation was postponed several times.

He was still awaiting a new date when his prayers were answered about three weeks ago when he was selected by the Ministry of Health to go to Cuba for treatment as a part of the Miracle Operation programme. The programme allows Jamaicans with serious eye problems to go to Cuba to get medical treatment free of cost.

Scott, accompanied by his daughter, Verona, spent 20 days in Cuba. He couldn’t recall the last thing he saw before he lost his sight two years ago, saying it had gone gradually. However, he will always remember the first thing he saw when the sight in his right eye was restored by surgery – the hospital room. Even if it was a bit blurred.

“When them take off the bandage off me eye me see the wall and the doctors,” he said, wiping his eyes with a rag. “Oh man, you can’t imagine how it feel.”

After the bandage was removed, Scott had an emotional reunion with his daughter, whom he had not seen for two years.

Scott returned to his home in Mountain Side last Tuesday. When the Sunday Observer visited his home he was sitting on the verandah of his modest bungalow, clad in a jeans shorts and a polo shirt. The snow-bearded senior who fathered six children is slightly hard of hearing, but his memory is still very sharp.

“Me did two operation,” he said. “The first one was the third of September and me could see a little. Then them do the other eye September 10th,” he said of his visit to Cuba.

He was at first sceptical about recovering his sight, but became a believer when his first eye was treated.

“Mi never believe it until me reach and them do the first eye,” he said.

“Them pick off everything off the eye and then them pour medicine on it,” he said, describing the procedure. “They give me two injection in one eye and one in the other…it hurt.”

Olive, Scott’s wife of 40 years, who took care of the farm and her husband while he was blind, said the first thing her husband did the morning after he arrived home from Cuba was to sweep his entire house – to the delight of family.

“He was very anxious to see everything so he went for a walk down the road, but him never go very far because the glare from the sun affects his eyes,” she explained. “Now that him can see him not as miserable as him used to be and him sleep at nights now.”

Olive said she believes that her husband’s new outlook on life is a miracle of some sorts. “God works in mysterious ways,” she said.

She said coping with the fact she had to pick up where her husband left off on the farm was not difficult, and she had help from Verona.

“I just try to cope and ask the Lord to give me strength,” she said. “My children abroad always tell me take a break, but I was not going to leave him in this state because it could be me,” she said.

Like Scott, 14-year-old Gregory Newman was also scheduled to get treatment at the Mandeville Hospital for his right eye that had gone completely blind due to cataract. However, he too received some good news.

“A nurse from the Mandeville Hospital called my mother and told her about the trip that was going to Cuba,” he said. “I was happy because I could go and do the surgery and they gave us somewhere to stay. The doctors were really nice.”

Newman’s mother, Denise Foster, had decided to take her son to see a doctor when she learnt he was having problems seeing from his right eye. He was scheduled to do an operation that would cost $15,000, however, his appointment was also rescheduled several times.

When he heard about the treatment in Cuba, Newman said: “At first I was worried, but my mind was also on doing the surgery.”

Newman and his parents are very thankful for the opportunity after worrying that he would lose his sight completely.

Newman and his mother spent three weeks in Cuba. He said the procedure took about four minutes and he remembers the painful injection he received under his eyelid before the procedure. When he took the bandage off his eye, Newman said, he was standing in front of a mirror so he was able to get a good look at himself with both eyes.

“It felt really good,” he said. “I feel a bit different because now I can see out of both of my eyes and I can’t really remember what that was like before, because the cataract developed as I grew.”

Newman said that he enjoyed staying in Cuba, as the culture there is a lot similar to Jamaica’s.

Since birth, Newman has lived with his father in the rural community of Mike Town, Mandeville. He is a grade nine student at Bellfield High School and enjoys reading, especially since he does not have to wear glasses. The youngster is also looking forward to doing science subjects next year.

“I like biology and I also like to experiment,” he said, adding that he hopes to become a doctor in the future.

His father, Eric, who is a welder turned farmer, describes his son as a brilliant and helpful young man. “Him no leave mi side,” he said. “Me sorry me no have more money to help him out the way me would want to.”