Advancing the Future of Retinal Care

Eleven years ago Nancy Halpern was seated at lunch with a friend when something about the table didn't look right.

"Suddenly the edge was not totally straight," she recalls. "It had a strange squiggle in it. So I decided I'd better go visit the Wills Eye Hospital Emergency Room."

It was a wise decision: Nancy was experiencing the first signs of degenerative retinal disease.

"About three months later," she recalls, "I was driving on the highway when there was so much distortion in the lane lines that I knew I didn't belong on the road anymore."

As her eyesight has declined over the years, Nancy has received ongoing care from Wills Eye Hospital. Her retinal specialist ensures the best monitoring of her rare retinal disease so that even slight changes are noted for possible preventive care. Early on, a support professional in the retinal service at Wills Eye helped Nancy investigate advanced assistive technology. Getting the right computer, magnifiers, and tools has meant a better quality of daily life as she adjusts to her constantly changing vision.

She will soon acquire a new visual prosthetic that employs smart technology to help her see in near-normal fashion. "It's truly miraculous!" she says.

Over the years, Wills Eye has encouraged her to stay independent, develop computer skills for the visually impaired, get around the city on her own, and maintain an active cultural life.

She is so grateful to Wills Eye, says Nancy, that she has included the hospital in her will.

"This place is right at the forefront of care," she stresses. "And it's also a really human and respectful place that has helped save my eyesight. Of course I want to support it!"

Focused on music, computers, and fun

Nancy has enjoyed a cultural life steeped in a love for music. A talented singer since she was young, Nancy has performed with several choirs and choruses. Here in Philadelphia she sang for 32 years with the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, which included performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the Kimmel Center, and the Kennedy Center.

Her professional life centered on computers and information systems. She first got involved in the field back in its early days, when computers required manual hand coding and data entry. While living in Boston in the 1960s, she joined a programming training program with the John Hancock Life Insurance Company.

"I liked puzzles and I liked logic," she recalls, "so from day one I realized that this was my aptitude. My career just evolved from there."

Over the years Nancy worked with a wide range of large corporations as a business analyst, a systems analyst, and a data security manager. As the field matured, she applied her computer experience as a consultant, and rounded out her career working independently in the Philadelphia area.

With the approach of retirement, she and her husband built a retirement home in Arizona. But in the late nineties, on one of their Arizona trips, her husband contracted a rare fungal infection that caused fungal pneumonia. Tragically, he then suffered a series of strokes, went into a coma, and died after the infection moved into his brain.

At that point, says Nancy, "I knew I wasn't returning to Arizona. I knew that Philadelphia was my home."

She moved into Center City Philadelphia, and over the years she has appreciated the city's convenient public transportation, easy walks to prime destinations, and handy access to organizations where she served as a volunteer. These volunteer sites included the Constitution Center, WHYY Public Media, the Kimmel Center, Komen Philadelphia, and many others.

But, she says, as her eyesight declined, "I knew I wanted to work less and indulge myself in just plain fun while I could still see. I started cutting back on my volunteer work so I could go to more movies, lunches, and concerts — basically do more of the things I love doing with my friends in the city."

Appreciating the benefits of charitable giving

Among those city activities she enjoys, says Nancy, are the special events that Wills Eye hosts for its donors. These include luncheons, lectures, and other social and educational activities that keep her in touch with people she has met through the hospital, and also keep her abreast of the latest Wills Eye news.

"When you learn about the depth of the care and research going on at Wills, the achievements of the doctors, and the plans and improvements for the facilities, it's all very exciting," she says. "And when you go there for your care, and your physician is a real star yet is also a human being who treats you as a person, you feel very good about where you are."

Nancy does not take lightly the question of where to direct her charitable support. When evaluating an organization, she is clear about what qualities she looks for.

"Demonstrating energy, treating people with caring and respect, being a key part of the community — these are all very important," she notes. "So is being dedicated to the future and continuing to thrive in your mission."

That last quality, she explains, is why she has made plans to support the future of Wills Eye Foundation through her estate:

"I'm very interested in advancing research for retinal disease, particularly degenerative retinal diseases. It's devastating, particularly for the expanding older population, and these diseases deserve more attention and money, now and in the future. It's why I'm so glad that my charitable support will continue beyond me."

For more information about making a planned gift in support of Wills Eye Hospital, please contact Suzanne Beers at (215) 440-3153 or sbeers@willseye.org.