...laughter across the parking lot.
I got into the car... and heard everything... my purse going down onto the seat. My bag. The button to start the car. The jingle of the keys.
Running a quick errand, I grabbed my items and set them on the counter. The nice lady asked how I was, commented on how pretty the puzzle I was purchasing was. I asked about the marked discounts. She explained that everything would ring up full price, and then she'd punch in the discounts.
I heard everything she said.
Walking back to the car I soaked the sounds in.
Suddenly surrounded by what felt like a brand new world.
I asked T if he had a minute to talk (he was at work).
As I drove home with him on speaker phone, tears streamed down my face. I told him that I didn't know putting my purse on the seat made a noise... all these noises around me.... the bag, the purse, the keys... They all ... make noise.
I said "I must be SO NOISY around the house....???" He replied that I AM noisy, but, he just thought I was a noisy person.
For years my Mom asked me to please stop talking so loudly...
I had no idea... because you don't know, what you don't know.
Over the last year or so I've noticed that I have to ask what people are saying, a LOT... to the point that I've stopped asking because I don't want to be a nuisance.
I also need the radio louder than T does. The volume he sets it on is too soft for me to hear, and my volume is too high for him.
Well. Today, my whole world opened up and I am filled with gratitude.
I am the proud wearer of hearing aides.
They are linking unaided hearing loss to early onset Alzheimer's, depression, and fatigue, among other things. What has been realized is that we actually hear with our brains, not our ears... So hearing aides are pretty incredible devices these days.
I'm one happy girl.
xo
K.
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