The Needs of Others
Contacting others with hearing loss to learn and share experiences
Sylvia, thanks for your cheery reply, gave me big smiles, particularly about taking life as it comes. Couldn’t agree more and I’m delighted to say that Sue feels the same way. If any of us were that bothered about not chucking food around then we’d eat Spaghetti Bolognese smoothies!
Sufferers of this eating problem might recognise something in Sue’s après meal search for escaped sweet corn, beans, peas or other rolling foods which always head south towards any gaps in her clothing. A positive thought, our best feline friend enjoyed Italian food and made the most of the splatterfests.
Another problem that arises from maintaining eye contact whilst being dexterous is making notes while lip reading. If you haven’t tried, have a go, especially hearing folk as it’s an eye-opener. Couple of years ago we went to an evening with Monty Roberts (the ‘Horse Whisperer’), I sat next to Sue frantically scribbling an abridged record of what was said whilst she watched the demonstrations and read my crab-like writing. Then at lipreading class the tutor showed us how to keep one hand on the edge of the pad so as to orient the writing hand and keep the lines straight – it worked very well.
I hope everyone is treated well by 2013, that may sound like a beauty queen (which I’m certainly not) telling people her greatest wish is for world peace, but I do mean it. 30 years ago I learnt a lesson about considering other’s needs which still shames me. Five of us had parked our bikes in the hospital’s car park whilst visiting a friend.
As we left someone said a driver had knocked over a big white bike. We dashed out and found an elderly gent trying to pick up my Moto Guzzi tourer (not easy for two people). I grabbed it off him and angered at the damage punched out what was left of the windshield – very out of character for me. The driver apologised profusely, gave me his address and asked me to call on him the next day.
All night I thought about why the driver might have been visiting the hospital and been in such a hurry. Next day I apologised for my inconsiderate behaviour as soon as he opened the door and told him we’d not had a good visit, which was no excuse. I asked what had been troubling him, had he had a good visit? He hadn’t, it had been bad news about his wife. We talked about his wife over tea and I said to forget about the damage.
He had enough troubles and I could get the parts trade. We’ve all got problems but by sharing knowledge and experience we may make life easier for others – so don’t hold back, don’t be shy, get on HL’s Facebook page and make contact.