April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
TROY LECTOR
Reading in Braille at St. Michael's
"When I was talking to Sister Kate [Arseneau, CSJ, the parish life director], it just happened," Mrs. McDoal said. "I had no idea I was going to say it."
But God must have known: "He has something to do with everything," she mused.
Mrs. McDoal, 72, has been blind since birth. Parishioners Ellen and Bob Hotz, who volunteer as pastoral care ministers, started bringing Mrs. McDoal communion last spring and then began driving her to church. They also connected her with the Xavier Society for the Blind, which now sends her Mass propers - the parts of the Mass that change from week to week - in Braille.
"I was so excited that I could read the Gospel along with the priest or deacon," Mrs. McDoal said. "It's something people might take for granted."
Starting at 72
Since January, Mr. Hotz has escorted Mrs. McDoal onto the altar once a month for her turn at doing readings.
"She reads very beautifully," Mrs. Hotz said. "People come up to her after church. Some of them are in tears, they're so impressed and happy for her. That, at 72, she'd come up and do something new is impressive itself."
Mrs. McDoal says she was nervous at first, but she "knew God was with me and He could get me through it.
"I like it," she continued. "It's very interesting. It just amazes me that people think it's amazing. God's teaching me to do something that is benefiting people and myself."
Being a lector helps her pay closer attention to weekly readings: "There's something [attention-grabbing] about when you read them yourself."
Mrs. McDoal attended the New York State School for the Blind in Batavia from kindergarten through 12th grade, only coming home to Albany for summer vacations. She had religious instruction and attended Mass there.
School days
"My experience was mixed," she said of the school, which today only accepts children who have additional disabilities. "I missed home life, but we got to do a lot of things."
There was a roller-skating rink and a swimming pool at the school, and she was in a Girl Scout troop. Her biggest take-away from the school was learning Braille - and she bemoans that many blind children today don't get that opportunity.
After high school, Mrs. McDoal worked for the Northeastern Association of the Blind at Albany, then as a medical transcriptionist at Samaritan Hospital in Troy for 40 years. She retired in 2003.
Though she wanted to be a nurse when she was a child, she enjoyed transcribing doctors' reports with a dictating machine and typewriters, and, later, computers.
"I always said the reason I had a job was because their writing was so bad," Mrs. McDoal said with a laugh. "It was an interesting period for me."
The last time Mrs. McDoal was a member of a Catholic parish was the late 1990s, but she always received communion and listened to Table of the Lord, the Albany Diocese's weekly televised Mass (see calendar, page 17, and ad, page 4).
Supported by faith
She had her faith tested when she was widowed twice: Her first husband died in a fire at their Troy mobile home in 1994, and her second husband succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2003.
"In bad times for me, [faith] pulled me through," she said. After her first husband's death, she struggled with the fact that she survived and he didn't. But she heard God say, '"You have work to do.'
"I know that [being a lector] is in His plan," she said. "Reading is something I can give of myself, so it's not as though people are just doing for me."
Mrs. McDoal is also a member of the Albany and Troy Lions Club, where she helps collect glasses and hearing aids. She sorts items at the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York and volunteers at American Red Cross blood drives.
Her boyfriend is also a member: "I never thought anyone else would be part of my life."
Mrs. McDoal has been going to St. Michael's activities and plans to get more active.
"The people are very friendly," she said. "[I] feel so like this is where I should be."[[In-content Ad]]
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