That picture book is *You Are My Beginning*, filled with linocuts about Haassie, who goes on all kinds of adventures. Just a few months ago, it was still uncertain whether it would ever be published: Wolters woke up one morning and could barely see anything out of her right eye. Panic. “I woke up and thought: my vision is so blurry—it’s as if my eye isn’t working anymore. It turned out to be a stroke affecting the optic nerve. At first, I was incredibly relieved because it wasn’t a brain tumor. But an infarction in your optic nerve is permanent, so I’m now 75 percent blind in my right eye: I only have vision in the upper part.”

Doubt

At first, she wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to draw again, but that doubt didn’t last long, Wolters says: “When I’m working, I still get frustrated sometimes. My vision isn’t great, and I get tired more quickly. But I hesitated for exactly half a day, wondering: Can I still do this? Then I thought: No, Octavie, stop this, because this is all I do—this is my life. If I didn’t have this, I’d die. Whatever comes out of my hands, it doesn’t matter, as long as I can do it.”

More information about the book “You Are My Beginning.”

Source: www.l1nieuws.nl