Older Deaf Lady's Growing up years

A Deaf Friend visits

Today I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine who is an older deaf lady. I believe she turned 80 this past November. She's spunky and still active best she can. She has had some recent health problems but is determined to battle them all.... She is one feisty lady!

New Life!

Yesterday she became a grandma again! However it was a difficult day as both the mother and the baby had health problems. My friend doesn't have a VP (videophone) and doesn't like to write much so she faxed and asked if she could come over to my house to talk. Most deaf people prefer one to one conversations than writing. "Of course", I said. I immediately pushed my own plans aside.

My friend shared what happened at the hospital. While her sons are pretty good at signing, I'm sure there were many times when she was in the "dark" and didn't know what was going on. This is very common for Deaf people and extremely annoying too as we want to know what is going on too.

Remembering Past memories

I asked her about her own children's births and she shared stories about having her babies (she has 5 boys and 1 girl) in hospitals and trying to communicate with nurses and doctors. Back then, they did not have interpreters.

She then went back to earlier memories to when she was growing up in northern Michigan on a farm. Unfortunately, she had a rough childhood and felt her parents and brothers and sisters never showed her any love. She was considered the family outcast as the only deaf child. Her father would beat her (and she would not understand why) and her brothers and sisters would play mean games and abandon her. She did not attend school until she was 10 years old. At that age, her parents finally sent her to the state Deaf school... MSD...Michigan School for the Deaf in Flint.

She had no way to communicate. She was mute and could not talk. She knew no sign at all except a few home signs. It was an extremely stressful time for her. Eventually a kind fellow student took her under her wing and taught her how to sign and how to read.

Today she still struggles with reading and she continues to have a deep desire to learn. She keeps a dictionary by her chair and if she comes across a word she does not understand, she will look it up in the dictionary. How many of us do that?

Makes me appreciate how blessed I was growing up in a "normal" loving family. I was never out casted by my family and treated no different than my hearing brothers and sisters. I also had regular schooling.

I pray for my friend and that her new granddaughter will be ok. There is talk of doing heart surgery. wow.. only a day old...

Lord... watch over this precious newborn child... she belongs to you.. keep her in your hands. Comfort the mother and father. Comfort my friend, the grandma. Give the Doctors the wisdom they need to do their job. We know you are in control and we trust you. Thank you Father for hearing our prayer. AMEN