We take everything for granted and never give it a thought of how others suffer without it.
Having just 38% hearing in my left ear, I have to face the people talking to me otherwise I only catch every second or third word.
Not to mention if they talk too soft or even whisper.
This is difficult as others normally do not give a damn about your disability.
Why, because they do not understand or simply just don’t care.
See, I wasn’t born partially deaf, it was caused by an accident.
Although they say it is exactly why it is called an accident, but this accident left me deaf for more than two weeks before I could only hear certain sounds.
It was quite interesting going for the hearing tests.
I remember the doctor asking me to press the button if I hear any decibels on the machine.
You sit and wonder if he is testing you by just not pressing anything on the other side or if you are just not hearing it.
Embarrassed by the moment you try your best to at least ‘try’ to hear something.
Your imagination can play a huge role in this.
But after an hour, the results were still a shock, only 38% hearing in the left ear, that’s it!
For the rest of my life, I will not hear properly.
Anger, frustration and all possible emotions were part of my life at the time.
I felt scarred for life, but because I was only 24 years old at the time, I had no time to sit and mope, life goes on they say.
I would one day like to meet ‘they’, really I would.
Don’t think ‘they’ have ever been in any bad situation, because ‘they’ just say live with it or it is not the end of the world.
Well for a short period of time, life did end for me and I didn’t live with it.
I had to adapt with many things in my life and worst of all it was when I lost my daughter in 2006 due to a car accident.
But the second worst thing, prior to that, was not being able to hear 100% with my left ear.
Chris Robertson, my husband, says I sometimes use it to my advantage, but I beg to differ.
Also life did go on and I did get use to the hearing problem, because we have a wonderful ability to adjust and adapt to any human situation.
Distance obviously plays a huge role when you cannot hear properly.
Still being blessed with wonderful people around me, I am grateful that I can still hear something.
There are less fortunate people out there who cannot hear at all.
Imagine not being able to hear the birds singing in the morning when you wake up.
Worse, imagine not being able to hear the sound of some one’s voice.
We have a lot to be grateful for and with one good ear and on partially deaf, I embrace life the way God has given it to me.
