As a child, I dealt with several ear infections, a few resulting in my eardrum rupturing. As a young adult, my eardrum again ruptured twice – once from being hit in the ear by a football and the other during a delayed landing of my airplane flight. Because of these ruptures, I experienced hearing loss in both ears.
As an older adult, I developed Meniere’s disease, a disorder of the inner ear. This disease increased my hearing loss and required me to wear hearing aids in both ears. Even with the hearing aids, the amount that I hear, especially in larger gatherings, is minimal. My conversations in large groups consist of smiles and nods with very little actual heard and understood.
The deaf community has such resilience, which I have always admired. However, for years, I resisted the various tools that they employ to maneuver life such as sign language. I’m honestly not sure why I did, though. At the age of 70, I have started the journey to learn sign language.
No Words Needed was written to demonstrate the deaf community’s resilience to adapt and survive as well as to hopefully encourage children to learn sign language to increase their ability to communicate with any deaf children in their classes. The story was also written out of my love and respect for the deaf community.
Diana, Never Too Old to Learn
