Bibliograph

A different kind of seeing, my journey, Marie Younan with Jill Sanguinetti

Type

Label

A different kind of seeing, my journey, Marie Younan with Jill Sanguinetti

Language

eng

resource.biographical

autobiography

Illustrations

portraitsillustrationsgenealogical tablesplates

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

A different kind of seeing

Responsibility statement

Marie Younan with Jill Sanguinetti

Sub title

my journey

Summary

Marie Younan was born in 1952 into a family of Assyrian refugees living in northeastern Syria. Accidentally blinded by her grandmother as a baby, Marie was the quiet, everpresent listener within her large extended family. Locked out of school, play, and social gatherings, she lived a brave inner life of reflection and acceptance. The family migrated to Beirut, and then, in the midseventies, to Melbourne, Australia to escape the Lebanese civil war. Being blind, Marie was denied a visa, and was forced to wait in Syria and Athens for three years before the family could sponsor her to Australia. Unable to speak English, dependent for everything on her family, Marie, in her words, was 'only half alive'. Then, in 1985, aged 33, she attended the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind. There she became fluent in English, literate in braille, and physically mobile with the help of a cane. Educated, independent, and professionally qualified at last, her life began to take off

Target audience

adult

Contributor