BY STEFANIE BOWMANN, Eastern Shore Post —
Althea Pittman knows a lot about always moving forward and never giving up. She has been blind since her mid-20s but has had a long career as an advocate for people with disabilities, helping them gain and maintain their independence.
Her advice, which she follows every day, is, “Get on your knees and talk to God, and he will show you the way.”
A neighbor recently found his way to Pittman in her hour of need.
On the morning of Saturday, April 26, she had gone walking outside her home in Melfa when she fell into a nearby pond.
Unable to help herself, Pittman lay surrounded by the dark, algae-filled waters. On the road on the opposite side of the pond, one neighbor, and then a second, drove by.
Both drivers saw something on the other side of the pond but could not clearly discern it. Both assumed that someone had dumped trash into the murky waters.
One driver believed she saw a red plastic cup floating in the pond, but it was actually the corner of the jacket Pittman was wearing that morning.
A third person drove by, Doug Muhle, accompanied by his wife, Sara. She also thought someone had tossed some trash into the pond, but her husband disagreed.
“That’s a body,” he said.
He drove around to the other side of the pond, and when the couple exited their vehicle and approached the water, they found Pittman, who was nearly completely submerged except for her eyes, nose, mouth, the corner of her red jacket, and her feet on the edge of the bank.
Doug Muhle observed Pittman’s lips moving.
“Are you alive?” he asked.
“Yes,” Pittman answered.
Muhle entered the water, lifted Pittman by her underarms, and pulled her from the pond. The couple placed a warm, dry covering around her and called 911.
Sara Muhle later shared that Pittman had said, “I was trying to do good.”
“Good found you,” Muhle said.
One week after the incident, Pittman expressed gratitude to everyone who had helped her, including the first responders who arrived at the scene and transported her to the hospital, where she received a clean bill of health.
On the Eastern Shore, “the people are so warm and so kind,” Pittman said. “People don’t allow there to be a divide here. We just look out for each other.”
After her experience receiving help, she was eager to continue her work helping others.
“I’m not going to stop trying to help people. … I’m not going to live in fear,” she said.
Pittman’s past experience assisting people with disabilities has included working for Blind Industries & Services of Maryland, in Baltimore County, where she was a rehab counselor who taught cooking and other independent living skills.
Pittman is the contact for the Eastern Shore chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Virginia.
She also has worked for more than 30 years for the Centers for Independent Living, which are designed and operated by and for people with disabilities. Pittman is the executive director of the Eastern Shore Center for Independent Living.
She is familiar with the struggles of people with disabilities, having experienced discrimination based on her own disability. She remembers when a blind person could be arrested for crossing the street independently, using a cane.
Pittman remembers learning Braille and how she answered people when they asked her if it was hard: “It was different.”
She has not allowed her blindness to prevent her from learning new things — including waterskiing.
“You can’t just sit back and say, ‘I can’t do it.’ You have to try and learn things. … That’s what I’ve been doing my whole life,” Pittman said.
And that’s what she’s going to continue to do and help others to do.
The next task Pittman wants to attempt is to write a book of her family history, keeping a promise she once made to her grandmother.
Pittman also plans to continue her work for the Eastern Shore Center for Independent Living, possibly for another seven or eight years.
“I want to accomplish as much as I (can) until it’s left in good hands,” she said.
“It’s been good,” Pittman said of her life so far, even with her blindness and the other physical and personal challenges she has faced. “Sometimes God’s trying to strengthen us and keep us going.”
She said she never planned on being blind, but “God has given me a new dream. … The more you can do for others, the happier you’ll be.”
