Coupvray, 1812
How Louis Became Blind

Picture
A leather stitching awl
In the little French town of Coupvrey, a terrible accident is about to happen.  A little boy sneaks past his parents into a workshop.  Half-made harnesses hang from the walls, and leather-working materials cover the large wooden table.  Unnoticed, the child picks up a sharp tool in his little hands.  Noticing a scrap of leather on the floor, he takes that as well.  Clutching his unapproved toys, he clambers up onto the three-legged stool.  Imitating his father, the boy attempts to poke a hole in the leather with the tool.  The tool slips off the smooth surface of the tanned leather, stabbing the little boy in the eye.

Hearing a sudden piercing cry, the mother runs to the workshop.  Dismayed at the sight before her, she yells for her daughter to fetch the local herbal woman.  When the healer arrives, she dips cloth in an herbal solution and wraps the bandage around the injured eye.  (Unfortunately for the Brailles, this popular remedy was a bad idea.  The bandage only helped make a darker, moister, more suitable environment for harmful bacteria.)  An infection quickly developed and soon spread to the other eye.  Within a few months, little 3-year-old Louis Braille is completely blind.