WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A blind woman has overcome a rare eye disease to write a dozen books.
Jennifer Rothschild, a best-selling writer and podcast host, is giving people hope that they can live beyond their limits.
She told WPTV that she started to lose her eyesight when she was a teenager.
"I was 15 years old, and I could see perfectly well," Rothschild explained, "but I remember in high school I was selected to draw a banner for our class."
She thought the banner was dirty but would soon find out her eyesight was changing.
"They diagnosed I had disease in both of my eyes called retinytis pigmentosa," Rothschild said. "As a teenager, I couldn't see my face. I couldn't see to read. I was legally blind. At night, I was totally blind."
Her prognosis was total blindness. After graduating from high school in Miami, she went to college at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach.
"Palm Beach Atlantic offered me a nurturing environment where I could learn and grow," Rothschild said. "I was their first blind student, and so they were so helpful. I had professors read to me."
Despite these challenges, she refused to give up.
"You've got to find something bigger than you to trust in, than your own feelings, than your own abilities," she said. "For me, that's my faith."
Her step of faith led her to her lifetime partner.
"I met the man I call my stud husband. I was a freshman and he was a sophomore. His name is Philip Rothschild. I was so scared to stay at college, but I remember meeting Phil my first couple of weeks in school and said to my mom, 'Don't ever make me come home from college. I met this guy,'" she recalled. "And sure enough, four years later, I married that man, and we've been married 38 years."
Philip Rothschild recalled first meeting Jennifer.
"I remember her walking into the cafeteria and when you meet Jennifer, she has a certain presence about her. she did at that age," Philip said.
They have two sons and five grandchildren. She now travels the country, sharing her story and inspiring others.
"Sometimes it can feel isolating because not everyone understands," she said. "Just know that you are not alone."
Though she does daily tasks, she leans on Phil. He has learned a lot being by her side.
"What I've learned is that we all have inadequacies, and losses and issues and in my world," Phil said. "Jennifer has done things in my life that compliment me, that help me to be better as a man, as a husband, as a father and so she has coached me up in so many ways."
"I could not do blindness without God," Jennifer said. "He gives me a strength that is supernatural that gives me hope and get up the next day and not feel overwhelmed."
She said she's a woman who walks by faith, not by sight.
Click here to learn more about Jennifer and her story.
