By Michael Futch

But, as his father insists, that doesn’t mean he can’t work.

He just can’t land a job. And Bobby is becoming desperate because he needs paying work to complete his high school diploma requirements.

“Put him answering the phone. Anything,” Phillip Sherman said. “He’s a genius when it comes to remembering numbers. Bobby’s a computer. Whatever you program in him, he’ll do over and over and over.”

Bobby Sherman will be a senior come this fall at Douglas Byrd High School. He has been blind since he was an infant. Surgeons at Duke University removed the second of his baby-blue eyes, the same color as his mother’s, at age 2.

Bobby Sherman has received a harsh taste of the real world over the last month or so. As of Thursday, he had batted 0-for-8 in an attempt to gain substantial summertime and after-school employment. Bobby inquired about possible openings at some of the local restaurants, where he could roll silverware, and at video game stores. He filled out applications and talked to managers at some of the businesses.

“One of the managers said he had to talk to one of his managers. They never got back,” Bobby said, as he sat between his father and his walking cane, propped against a wall inside the Spring Lake Pizza Hut. “I guess they didn’t want me.”

“Bobby’s drawback is he’s blind,” said Jean Bowden, his aunt. “As soon as people see that, they have a reason — ‘We can’t let you do that because ...’ It’s always because of something. But Bobby knows it’s because he can’t see.”

At this time, he’s working a couple of hours a day, five days a week, answering the telephone in the main office of Ireland Drive Middle School. That’s about 5 miles from the weathered, ’77 model double-wide mobile home that he shares with his father.

The work, which is through the North Carolina Division of Services for the Blind, is short term and is expected to end Aug. 9.

“He needs a job-job,” Bowden said. “He has no paid work hours to date. The summer job does not count.”

That temporary work at Ireland Drive Middle is not credited toward the 360 hours of paid employment required before Bobby can earn his high school diploma in the occupational course of study.

Mary Rice is director of Exceptional Children’s Services with Cumberland County Schools, which oversees Bobby’s program.

“A lot of businesses have been really good to work with us,” she said. “It gives them (the students) different experiences through the world of work, and so when they leave high school, they have an idea of a career they might be interested in.”

Should Bobby finish out the school year without reaching the required 360 hours of paid employment, he would receive a certificate of attendance on graduation day. He could come back with documentation of paid work and get his diploma later, she said.

Last year, 32 visually impaired students among 7,527 exceptional children attended Cumberland County schools.

Susan Guy works with them. “Typically,” she said, “our kids can be the most reliable employees. More routine activities are better. They’ll stick with companies for a long time. They enjoy doing things and appreciate doing things in some cases employees don’t want to do. When you have somebody who likes to do it, that makes our students great employees.

“The key is employers being open to hiring our folks because they see the benefits of hiring them.”

Close to father
On this day, Bobby’s ride is running late.

After his two hours answering the phone, he boards a van for the disabled at Ireland Drive Middle that takes him to his father’s workplace in Spring Lake. Phillip Sherman works as an automobile technician at Competition Automotive Service on Bragg Boulevard.

There, Bobby routinely spends his time behind the counter and waits for his father to get off work around 6 p.m. Sometimes, he sweeps and does other chores.

On this sweltering Wednesday afternoon, the van pulled into the shop at 2 o’clock. “How you doing, Bobby?” his father asked, as his son made his way off the air-conditioned vehicle with measured steps.

“They’re on the late side,” he replied.

For an interview, the older Sherman spent his lunch break in the Pizza Hut right across Bragg Boulevard. Just outside the open garage where he works, he took his son’s left hand while Bobby used the cane in his right, tapping the cement and asphalt as they made their way across the busy stretch of road.

Inside the restaurant, Bobby accidentally bumped into a chair on his way to a booth.

“My bad!” said his dad.

“Yeah, you’re bad. You’re bad ,” Bobby told him.

Father and son have a different kind of relationship.

They only have each other.

More than four years ago, Bobby’s mother died of ovarian cancer. Elizabeth Bowden, or “Sissy” as many knew her, had been a volunteer in the Cumberland County schools and served as PTA president at his school.

Before then, Phillip Sherman had never taken care of his boy. That was Sissy’s job. The way Sherman saw it, he was the breadwinner of the family.

“Bobby, I don’t treat him as a son,” he said. “We’re friends.”

Now in remission, Bobby has been a cancer patient all his life.

That’s why he’s blind.

Bobby had tumors — medically known as trilateral retinoblastoma — in both eyes, in his brain stem and in his right arm. He has undergone 30 surgeries, his father said. Twice he has had to be fed through tubes.

For the first 12 years of his life, Bobby underwent monthly blood transfusions.

Sherman said Bobby had so much radiation to kill the tumors in his brain, that it stunted his growth. A year ago, they found out that he’s diabetic, too.

“He’s medically fragile,” his father said.

Still, Bobby’s blindness and other physical problems over time have not diminished his passion for life. He sees the world in a different way.

“He can get blue,” said Bowden, his aunt. “He can get down. But he’s never so upset he can’t function.”

He’s a short, pudgy teen, with a sweet round face that matches his disposition. “Cute little Bobby Sherman,” Guy calls him. He loves to dance. He loves to sing. He has his own set of drums that he sometimes plays early in the mornings.

Guy describes him as charming. Personable. “I could see him in a kind of role working with people,” she said. “The occupational course of study that he’s in is designed for students to go to work after high school.”

Bobby is independent, his father said. “If he wants something to drink, he gets his own water. If he wants something to eat, he puts it in the microwave.”

He said his son likes to work hard.

“Bobby’s looking for something to do,” he said. “He wants a job where he gets paid. He needs 360 hours where he can get his diploma like the rest of the kids when he graduates.”