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Produced by the ILAB at WBUR Boston.

From The New York Times and WBUR Boston, this is Modern Love.

Stories of Love, Laws, and Redemption.

I'm your host, Megna Chacrabardi.

Ryan Knighton and his wife Tracy have been together for more than 20 years.

In the beginning, when he still had his sight, Ryan made a point of storing away a memory of Tracy's face.

How he deals with everything else is another story.

David O'Yellowo stars in the new movie Don't Let Go. He reads Ryan's essay, Seeing the World Through My Wife's Eyes.

My birthday is a conflicted 24 hours.

While I'm more than happy to bumble about this life looking for whatever it is we look for,

my birthday also happens to mark a second beginning.

The morning I turned 18, I was told I was going blind.

My doctor said the twilight would dim for another five, maybe ten years, then, well, poof.

Now, as someone for whom the lights have gone out, I puzzle over our zeal for blowing out candles on cakes.

Sighted folks get off on the strangest rituals.

Not that I'm party pooping at my own bash.

I have other causes for celebration.

For one thing, my wife Tracy and I were born on the same day, 12 hours apart.

We discovered this when we met in graduate school ten years ago when I was still a somewhat sighted guy.

Our joint birthday catapulted us into a first date, wings and a beer at a sports bar.

That night we turned 23 together.

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