San Fernando Valley : NO BASKET CASE

June Goldenberg loves making baskets: bagel baskets, gourmet snack baskets, Irish-themed baskets, corporate baskets, book and puzzle baskets.

“I love it here,” said Goldenberg, working out of her Panorama City home. Goldenberg lost partial vision in her right eye in 1991. Years earlier, she had lost sight in her left eye.

Today, she runs a company called The Basket Place using special magnifying lenses, glasses, a computer and closed-circuit TV that helps her read.

“Now it’s like I’m normal again,” said Goldenberg, who started her business in 1994.

All Goldenberg wanted when she first lost her sight was to get her life back to normal. With special glasses, Goldenberg was able to return to work handling real estate transactions for the Los Angeles Unified School District, but the job was later eliminated in budget cuts.

“I had to make a choice that has to be made by anyone who has an impairment,” Goldenberg said. “It is to live or to die, and if you choose to live there are all sorts of ways to live.”