ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 3, 1997 TAG: 9702030116
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
GEORGE HEILIG, chairman of the powerful House committee that deals with business issues, faces a personal crisis. He's going blind.
The moment that Del. George Heilig had dreaded for so long finally arrived two years ago while he was campaigning door-to-door in Norfolk.
"I couldn't read the numbers on the houses," Heilig recalls.
Heilig had been losing his eyesight for several years. He could see well enough, at least with one eye, to keep his condition a secret. Only family and a few trusted friends knew he had macular degeneration, an irreversible disease.
It was during his 1995 re-election campaign that his remaining good eye failed, forcing Heilig to face the reality - and finality - that he would live in a world where people's faces are a blur and words on a page are a gray mush.
His private anguish occasionally became a public topic in Norfolk, given his position as a senior member of the General Assembly. Now, more than a year later, Heilig has emerged from his darkest hours with a fuller acceptance of his fate. At mid-life (he just turned 54), Heilig is readjusting his self-image from that of a former All-American football star to someone who may be best remembered as a role model for the visually handicapped.
"There are people who tell me they think I can be a real inspiration," he said.
Heilig's eyesight has not prevented him from leading the House Corporations, Insurance and Banking Committee, which considers some of the most complex legislation.
Visitors to the committee probably don't even notice Heilig's condition. He is so familiar with the business issues - he has served on the committee for two decades - that he can grasp issues without having to read the fine print.
"I listen very carefully," he said. "As far as the periods and commas, I don't care because I don't even see them."
Heilig might not be able to see the business lobbyists when they stand at the podium about 40 feet away. But he can recognize their voices, and greets them each by name.
"I haven't noticed any difference at all in the way the chairman runs the committee," said Reggie Jones, a lobbyist for HMOs and several other industry groups.
The committee staff helps Heilig by printing his agenda on double-sized paper and providing him with bill numbers in stage whispers.
There are some moments when his condition becomes plain to all. Like the time a few weeks ago when he announced that he would like to recognize a group of visiting schoolchildren if they were still present. The room was half empty, occupied only by the usual gaggle of lobbyists.
Heilig appears in better spirits this year, spicing the committee meetings with quips. His favorite schtick is to suggest that he will look more favorably upon a proposal if supporters show how it will affect people back in Norfolk or - better yet - his district in Norfolk.
"There seems to be an inordinate amount of people from Norfolk testifying about bills," Heilig said, laughing.
His General Assembly colleagues say Heilig is making the best of his new situation.
"It has an effect on him, as it would have on anyone," said House Speaker Thomas Moss, a fellow Norfolk Democrat.
Heilig was blessed with excellent vision. He never wore glasses and prided himself on being able to pick up a tennis ball the instant it left an opponent's racket.
A Norfolk native, he was a tennis star as a youngster playing at the Norfolk Yacht Club. He went to college at Hampden-Sydney College, where he played tennis and was a receiver on the football team. He was named honorable mention Little All-American for his junior and senior seasons.
He first noticed a problem on the tennis court in the late 1980s. He had trouble picking up the ball off the racket. He attributed the change to middle age.
One day, he was waiting at a traffic light in Norfolk. Gazing in the middle distance, he noticed something strange about the cars passing in front of him.
"It was like the cars were going over a little hump," he said, moving his hand to describe the movement.
He put one hand over his left eye, and the strange vision continued. He then closed his right eye, and the cars were normal.
Later, a physician friend who heard his story said it sounded like classic symptoms of macular degeneration.
The condition, more common in people a generation older than Heilig, causes the deterioration of the part of the eye used to focus on fine details. A person retains his or her peripheral vision, but the area in the center of their vision goes dark.
"See those lights up there?" Heilig said, pointing to a row of three recessed bulbs above the bar of a restaurant in Richmond's Fan Section.
"I can see the three lights with my peripheral vision. But when I look directly at that first light there, it goes away."
Though he is considered legally blind, Heilig stressed that he can still see well enough to recognize people a few feet away or to watch a football game while sitting close to the screen. He can read large print with the help of special glasses that magnify things eight times. He even plays golf, with his partner watching his ball.
"I'm not going to walk off a pier or something," he said.
In the late 1980s, Heilig consulted top specialists around the country. They all had the same bad-news, good-news scenario for him: The bad news was that the disease would spread to both eyes. The good news is that it won't get any worse with age.
The fateful moment came when he was running for re-election in 1995. After he secured his 12th term, Heilig disappeared. He quit his law firm, separated from his wife and left town.
"I was kind of down on myself," he said.
There were times in December 1995 when Norfolk Democrats knew neither Heilig's whereabouts nor whether he would show up in Richmond to take his seat. Republicans began working behind the scenes to line up a candidate in case he resigned.
Heilig was on hand for the opening of the 1996 Assembly, saying he was eager to serve out his term.
There were poignant moments of introspection. In a chat with a reporter, Heilig said he looked forward to a life free of his old responsibilities to his law firm.
"I wonder what it's like to wait tables," he said. "Maybe I'll be a waiter."
Later in the spring, Republicans tried to make an issue of Heilig's new-found freedom. He went out West for a few months, leaving a forwarding address in New Mexico. Republicans asked the attorney general if Heilig had moved his legal residence out of state and should have to forfeit his seat. The petition was denied.
This year, Heilig says he plans to stay in the legislature at least four more years. He said his hometown will need his seniority on the House redistricting committee after the next national census in the year 2000. If the city's population continues to decline, Norfolk could lose two of its five seats to suburban Virginia Beach and Chesapeake.
"I think it's important that Norfolk has the best representation it can," he said.
Heilig said he also feels compelled to stick around because advocates for visually handicapped people have given him so much encouragement.
"I don't think the fact that I can't see well enough to practice law has anything to do with being a good legislator," he said.
LENGTH: Long : 138 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Bill Tiernan 1996, Landmark News Service. George Heilig,by CNBD-Norfolk, reads the daily calendar during a session of the Virginia
Legislature. color. KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1997