by John Johnston
United Way of Greater Cincinnati
(The Cincinnati Enquirer and United Way of Greater Cincinnati have joined forces for the 38th year to help families in need with the Wish List program. After wishes are granted, remaining funds assist people with similar needs throughout the year.)
Barbara Liszniewski, who is 79, harbors a deep, lifelong love for music.
“The simple way to put it – it’s meant everything,” she said.
Many years ago, music brought together the two people who became her parents. Karol Liszniewski, a professor of piano at what is now the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, gave piano lessons to Dorothy Norris, an osteopathic physician. They fell in love and married.
They were in their car one day when a drunk driver slammed into them. The impact caused Dorothy, who was pregnant, to go into premature labor. She delivered a child, Barbara, who has been blind since birth.
Barbara was 2 when her mother died of breast cancer. Barbara’s father, her first music teacher, died of heart failure when she was 12.
But music remained a constant in Barbara’s life. At the Ohio State School for the Blind in Columbus, she honed her vocal and piano skills, and in eighth grade, she began taking organ lessons. After graduating, she took additional organ and piano classes at CCM.
Barbara welcomed opportunities to play the organ at her church, Fleming Road United Church of Christ. And, she joined the Cincinnati chapter of the American Guild of Organists. “Through the years, I’ve made a lot of friends with people in that organization who are musicians, and I’ve gone to a number of their concerts.”
Music has always been Barbara’s passion but not her occupation. For more than 40 years, she worked at Clovernook Center for the Blind & Visually Impaired, mostly as a proofreader of Braille.
The year after she was named Clovernook’s 1997 employee of the year, Barbara attended a National Industries for the Blind, or NIB, conference in Alexandria, Virginia. A 1998 Enquirer story recounted how, at a banquet attended by 500 people, Clovernook’s then-president, Marvin Kramer, sought out an NIB official and volunteered Barbara to sing the national anthem.
“Can she sing?” the official asked.
“Of course,” Kramer assured. In fact, he’d never heard her, although others had told him she was good.
After Barbara’s a cappella rendition, effusive applause “shook the room, practically,” Barbara said.
That led to other opportunities to publicly sing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” including at a Cincinnati Reds game and minor league hockey and soccer games.
After a recent fall and rehab, Barbara now lives at an assisted living facility and uses a wheelchair.
Of her life without sight, she said, “It’s something I had to deal with, rather than a disability. My biggest challenge in life would be trying to learn a piece of music that might not be available in Braille music notation. Then I had to get somebody sighted to help me learn it.
“I learned by committing everything to memory, and I’m still doing it.”
Barbara’s wish is for adaptive computer equipment. Setup and training would be provided by the Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, which has provided her with technology services over the years and nominated her for the Wish List.
The benefits would be twofold: Barbara could stay better connected to the people at her church and to her friends at the organists guild; and through the internet, she would have access to music that, to her, means everything.
Barbara’s wish: Adaptive computer equipment.
Estimated cost: $2,368.
How to help
Donations can be made online at www.uwgc.org/wishlist. You can also mail donations to: United Way of Greater Cincinnati, Attn: Wish List Pledge Processing, P.O. Box 632840, Cincinnati, OH 45263-2840. Please include “Wish List” in the memo line on checks.
Page 7 