Sharing Your Story - Mary McDonach

WonderBaby parents provide much of the website’s content. They are not just passive observers or consumers of information; many site users comment on articles, answer questions in the Q&A forum, and share hyperlinks to net resources. Some submit original articles. It’s in this sharing that WonderBaby earns much of its authenticity.

These are real parents with real kids who are blind or visually disabled. They can empathize with other parents seeking answers. Having educated themselves, they feel compelled to give back so that fellow and future parents of children who are blind or visually disabled can also benefit from their experiences.

Mary McDonach from Glasgow, Scotland, is one such parent. Her daughter, Elizabeth, was born with albinism. Mary found WonderBaby while Googling the word combination blind+baby. “You have to get the right keywords,” she said.

She was reluctant at first to share her story. Yet after several heartfelt, in-depth and quite poignant emails to site founder Amber Bobnar, Mary made the leap from consumer to contributor.

“I would get these long emails from people,” Amber said. “They’d say ‘I read this article. It was great. I also know about this…’ and then they’d start writing about their experiences. And I’d think ‘I don’t think this person realizes they just wrote an article.’” She’d ask them permission to post their email as an official article on WonderBaby. They’d say “Well, I’m not a writer.” To that, Amber insisted, “No, you are.”

Once Mary noticed her words on the WonderBaby screen, she realized that perhaps she had something to say that others would benefit from.

“The subject was so very important to me emotionally (it was about finding ways for our children to hold memories of us) and I figured it could contribute to a greater good,” Mary said. “Amber puts my stories together… she smoothes my edges.”

In this way, Amber and Mary became an international writer-editor team for content on WonderBaby. Since her initial reluctance, Mary has become quite the prolific author for the website. Her subjects run the gamut for raising a child who is blind. She’s tackled everything from empathy to teaching your child manners to distinguishing between blindness and autism and dealing with the cruelty strangers can sometimes unload on your family.

Mary said Lizzie won a Groovy Hair Day prize at school for this!

“We had a baby, after 15 years of nagging. I finally got my wish and she was the most outrageous, wonderful, exciting frightening just unbelievable thing that ever happened to us. And she was blind. Amber gave me a platform to talk about Lizzie and I just want the world to marvel a bit too. Is that too much to ask?” she said.

Before WonderBaby, the low-incidence of blindness had Mary feeling alone in dealing with her daughter’s needs. She encountered experts who either guarded their information like a “dog with a bone” or simply would not admit that they didn’t know what to do. She was reduced to dealing within the constraints of the system, which she felt coerced into acceptance without question.

“And then there was WonderBaby, with Amber’s determination to speak to people, give them information, educate, empower, and validate disabled children!” she said. “Once you get into WonderBaby, blindness is not a low incidence disability; it's bloody everywhere; it's normal! The power that has, just that alone, well, it's difficult to explain adequately.”

Although, if you read one of Mary’s articles, you’ll get the idea.