Friday Friends: Spotlight on Mary Hiland

F R I D A Y F R I E N D S

SPOTLIGHT ON MARY HILAND

Author, Speaker, Peer Advisor … And Much More

One of the aspects of International Blindness Awareness Month I really love is celebrating the accomplishments of vision-impaired and blind individuals. I am so honored to share the newest accomplishment of Mary Hiland, my colleague at VisionAware.org

Mary Hiland Loves to Express Herself in Writing

Mary has a plethora of experience in leadership roles. Over the course of her career, she has written countless articles and personal experience essays. However, now Mary is the author of the recently released book, “The Bumpy Road to Assisted Living, A Daughter’s Memoir.”

Author Mary Hiland Talks about her Memoir

BIO

Mary Hiland, a native of Cincinnati, lives in Gahanna, Ohio with her Seeing Eye ® dog, Dora. She is a graduate of Ohio State University with a B.S. Degree in Social Work. She is recently retired as Executive Director of The American Council of the Blind of Ohio. Before that, she served for over twenty-one years as Director of Volunteers for Voicecorps Reading Service.

Ms. Hiland has been published in Chicken Soup for the Parent’s Soul, Red Book Magazine, The Toastmaster Magazine, and The Columbus Dispatch. Her own blog is seeingitmyway.com

In 2001, Ms. Hiland carried the Olympic Torch, and in 2015, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from her local Toastmasters Club.

Ms. Hiland’s passions are reading, public speaking, cycling, cross country skiing, swimming, hiking, and taking long walks with her Seeing Eye ® dog. She writes for the pure pleasure of it.

As an only living child, she benefited from the single-minded love and devotion of her parents, so when her mother, who was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease and was going blind and deaf, needed to give up her independence and move into assisted living, it was time for Ms. Hiland to step up and assume the duties and role reversals required for her mother. She wrote about her experiences with the hope of being helpful to others in this tough place in life. “The Bumpy Road to Assisted Living, a Daughter’s Memoir” is her first book.. Learn more about it from her short video:

To connect with Mary Hiland, check out the link to her Facebook page, book and youtube channel.

Facebook page:
The Bumpy Road to Assisted Living: A Daughter’s Memoir
Youtube Channel:

You can ask Mary anything about her book, or her writing / publishing or speaking journey in the Comments below.