The Sound of Her Voice: My Blind Parents' Story

Book Synopsis: So much of falling in love is visual. Catching someone’s eye. Noticing — with admiration or pleasant surprise — how they dress and carry themselves. Being captivated by their smile. Feeling that initial sense of physical attraction.

But when you are blind, how do you fall in love if it cannot be “at first sight?” By sound, of course.

The Sound of Her Voice: My Blind Parents’ Story is the inspiring chronicle of a remarkable couple (both blind since childhood) who — against all odds — lived full and productive lives. Mario became the first blind graduate of the University of Notre Dame Law School and was later elected Judge of two different county courts in Muncie, Indiana. Jane, who was fiercely independent from a young age, ran the household and raised four sighted children without outside assistance. Capable and confident from the start, Mario and Jane Pieroni lived abundant and gracious lives, overcoming the constant challenges they faced.

A Memoir So Poignant That It Reads Like Fiction

In this inspirational first-hand account, Jane and Mario’s story is told by their youngest child, Mary Pieroni Harper. “I grew up in a loving household with parents who were patient and kind,” she tells us. “Our family looked like other families who were at Sunday Mass or on television (my main frame of reference as a child). Yet Mom and Dad’s eyes didn’t light up when they saw me or darken when I did something wrong. They had no idea what I looked like.”

Using extensive archival material — including recorded audio and video interviews, and family photos — Harper offers up a tale both historical and future-facing, helping us understand how the world unfolded for generations past and what is possible for generations to come. With clarity and emotional vulnerability, Harper takes us on an odyssey that extends more than a century — first putting the reader in the room during her mother’s birth, when young parents (Harper’s grandparents) were overwhelmed with fear and grief to meet their baby girl whose eyes were bulging with glaucoma. We travel through time during her parents’ childhoods and watch them mature and fall in love during their education at the Indiana School for the Blind. And Harper gives us powerful glimpses of her own life — then and now — as one of four children who could see her parents but whose parents only knew her by touch and sound.

A Book for All Ages and Abilities

“When you were a child,” Harper asks us, “did you ever close your eyes to see what it would be like to be blind? Perhaps you tried walking a few steps with your arms outstretched, hands waving as you tried to avoid walking into a wall.” Yes, yes we did.

Whether you’re 14, 44, or 74, The Sound of Her Voice is a heartwarming book that will leave you feeling personally empowered and more deeply connected to the people around you. If you love children (and dogs!), you can’t help but be brought to laughter and tears again and again by this book. And if you believe we are all capable of greatness, despite our challenges, this book will make you stand up and cheer.

The story of Mario and Jane — and their four children — challenges us to think about how other people (like those with vision loss or other disabilities or differences) navigate the world and how our experiences, though varied, can bring us closer together instead of separating us.

The Sound of Her Voice is an inspirational tale for all of us and an especially poignant reminder for families and individuals with disabilities that anything is possible when love guides the way.

Forthcoming in audiobook and Braille editions.