My Mum and Dad have been here for the last few days. It’s the first time I have seen my Mum on Mother’s day for more than 10 years so it’s been rather special. I bought her an azalea (pictured), in full bloom, but was worried that it’d only make Mum happy and not Dad. I know it’s supposed to be for Mum but I still think it’s nice if they both like it.

The problem is the colour. My Dad is utterly and completely red-green colour blind. He quite literally can’t see red or bright pink flowers on green plants. If the pink is very pale it’s fine and if the flowers are white or yellow he’s usually OK too. His colour blindness has caused many laughs in our family over the years because he is also purple-blue colour blind so almost any colour combo has the potential to be a disaster. Like the day when we asked him why he’d bought a set of purple hankies – answer: to go with his blue suit. Or the day when he absolutely refused to believe the red shirt he’d bought wasn’t green! We laugh despite his frustration because it REALLY does frustrate him. Once, he even failed to get a job he really wanted because of it.

When I gave the azalea to Mum, I apologised for buying a deep pink flower rather than a pale one because of Dad’s difficulties but was told that maybe, just maybe it wouldn’t be a problem. Dad has just ordered a set of oxy-iso lenses from America. I’d never heard of them but apparently they were developed for another purpose but a “side effect” is that they give full colour vision for the colour blind. He’s ordered a pair of lenses that he’s hoping to find an optician prepared to turn into his prescription and mount them into frames so he can wear them as normal specs.

*If* he can get the glass made into lenses and *if* they work, they will bring him great joy. For those of us that look at him rather than out from his eyes, we will need to adjust to his new appearance because the glass looks purple to the rest of us and hence a big-ish chunk of his face will suddenly become purple!