LOVE LIVES ON:

As a kid, I would see this gentleman riding his bicycle around town, and was always impressed how a blind person had the courage to be out on the road with all the cars going by.

He would ride alongside a sighted person with one arm reaching over and resting on his friend's shoulder for guidance.

Jack Shortt never let anything, or anyone, hold him back from what he wanted to do

Jack Shortt has named his birthday gift for his wife. She was a shorthand typist who learnt braille and he learnt to type so they could send love letters to each other.


It's the blind leaving to the blind. Jack Shortt's 90th birthday will be celebrated on Saturday, but the Palmerston North man is doing the giving.

Mr Shortt, who has been blind since he picked up an Army shell at Foxton Beach when he was 12, is giving his life savings of $45,000 to the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind to fund more talking books.

Reading is one of his main "time fillers", says the Savage Crescent resident, along with ham radio, his garden and working with cane. He also played cornet in the Blind Institute Band of the 1930s and '40s and is an indoor bowls and rowing champion.

He's a fit 90 year old.

The story goes that several years ago he was told off by his neighbours for climbing the 15-metre tower in his backyard when the aerial cable for his short-wave radio set came undone.

He climbed down, waited for nightfall when no one was around and went back up again to fix it.

Mr Shortt has made the donation because he loves reading.