Wow. I'm betting that they took the entire lens out but had no technology to replace it, hence the giant glasses to try and compensate for a lensless eye.

So, after typing that, I got interested and had to check. Sure enough, it appears that this was the process well into the 1970s:

"By the middle of the 20th century, lens extraction was still the standard procedure for treating cataracts. Although it involved making large incisions extending almost 180 degrees around the patient’s cornea, it generally produced good results. However, the procedure was still hampered by a 5% rate of complications that could result in blindness. Further, because the eye was left without a lens, patients were required to wear unattractive high-powered hyperopic spectacles (“Coke-bottle” glasses) or contact lenses in order to see clearly after the operation.6,7 The cataract glasses rendered a good retinal image when viewing through the center of the lens, but patients’ peripheral vision was highly distorted. And while distortion was far less with contact lenses, older individuals often had trouble inserting and removing the lenses as their dexterity declined. Even through the latter part of the 20th century, cataract extraction was typically delayed until the patient had severe vision loss from the lens opacity and considered life with cataract glasses or aphakic contacts the lesser of two evils.

"As early as 1795, attempts were made to place a glass lens inside the eye for correction of postcataract extraction aphakia. These early IOLs quickly dislocated into the vitreous cavity, and the procedure was soon abandoned. Sir Harold Ridley, a British ophthalmologist, is credited with the development of the modern IOL. Ridley observed that plexiglass fragments from shattered Spitfire cockpit windows could remain inert in the eyes of Royal Air Force pilots for years after the penetrating injury. He fashioned a polymethylmethacrylate lens and first implanted it after a cataract procedure in 1949. Intraocular lens development proceeded slowly over the next several decades because of high complication rates with early IOLs. Thus, most surgeons remained skeptical of IOLs through the 1970s and continued to leave eyes aphakic after surgery."

Source: Amazing to see the progress in surgery.

By a roll of the dice I happened to get this condition in an era of supreme medical sophistication...also, the new implanted lenses will (knock on wood) cure a lifetime of extreme myopia and glasses-wearing. It will actually be an upgrade if all goes well. Remarkable stuff.