When my brother Joey was 6 months old, my mother brought him home from the hospital and told me to watch him while she fixed supper. We started playing a game I called "dogs", rolling on the floor like pups  . Then I looked up and saw my mother watching us. She was crying. "He's blind," she said. "The doctor told me today." I looked at Joey. He was laughing. "He can't be blind," I said. "He smiles at my face." "He smiles at your voice," she said. "He'll never see your face." That was that. Joey was blind. Mama went back to cooking. I went back to playing a dog.  From the age of 8, Joey boarded at a school for the deaf and the blind, learning to read Braille  . When he was 16, the school said he'd learned enough and sent him home with a Braille typewriter. At 21, Joey moved out to live on his own, he said, "like a man," in an apartment 30 miles (48 km) away. He learned to cook, clean, do his own laundry, and do almost anything else he needed. Then he met the love of his life. She, too, was blind. When Joey called to tell me, he said: "Even a blind man can fall in love at first sight." They shared 10 good years before he lost her to cancer. Painfully soon after, he also lost our mother, who was his champion, and our stepfather, who was Joey's best friend. What is left when you lose the loves of your life? My brother clung with an iron fist   to three gifts: Faith, hope and love. His faith grew stronger. He always had hope. And his love for his family has never gotten weaker, despite death or disappointment. Loved ones leave, but love remains. The years ahead may prove to be his hardest. His legs are growing weaker, threatening to take away the independence he's fought so hard to keep. My sister and I often wonder what will happen if Joey can't live on his own. It's not up to us. We'll do what we can, but it's his life. He won't have it any other way. You don't find strength to do something until it's time to do it. Joey has found _ whenever he has needed it. I believe he will again. When the author's mother brought her little brother Joey back from the hospital, the author   _  .
was sad because he couldn't see things clearly immediately introduced him to the family dog worried that he might steal her mother's love from her had great fun playing a game with him