Miss-Delectable
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BostonHerald.com - Local & Regional: Deaf residents weather ordeal with good humor
Still swaddled in her purple robe, her eyes shaded by rose-colored glasses, Joan Bozak said she didn’t need bone-rattling booms from yesterday’s predawn explosions in Danvers to rouse her from a sound sleep yesterday morning.
Bozak is blind and deaf, so her bed at the New England Home for the Deaf in Danvers is rigged to vibrate when her life is in danger.
“I’m sure my bed’s still shaking,” the elegant 62-year-old said through an interpreter who communicated by entwining fingers with her. “But obviously, I didn’t have time to shut it off.”
Some confined to wheelchairs, others still huddled beneath crocheted throws snatched from their beds, 60 residents were evacuated from the assisted and independent living facility across the Waters River from the chemical plant where yesterday’s earth-shaking blasts originated. The residents were taken to the Danvers High School gym, and from there, to the Essex Park Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Beverly.
Their windows shattered and their doors blown from their hinges, these residents didn’t escape with much besides their sense of humor.
“I was sleeping. A book hit me,” said Ida Vernon, a 92-year-old deaf great-grandmother. “I thought it was God saying, ‘Wake up!’ So I said, ‘OK! I’m awake!’ But everything was on the floor.”
Volunteers skilled in sign language rushed to the gym to preside over bingo games and to interpret a pep talk by Gov. Mitt Romney.
Gary Petzold and his 7-month-old daughter Quinn drove from Dracut to bring his 84-year-old deaf mother, Pearl Petzold, home for the holidays.
Torn between tears and laughter, the elderly woman clutched her face and smothered Quinn with kisses when they reunited.
“We’re just so grateful no one was killed on Thanksgiving,” her son said.
Rosa LaRocque, a certified nursing assistant at the home, said, “The windows, the doors . . . they’re all gone. We thank God we’re alive. It’s what it’s all about.”
Still swaddled in her purple robe, her eyes shaded by rose-colored glasses, Joan Bozak said she didn’t need bone-rattling booms from yesterday’s predawn explosions in Danvers to rouse her from a sound sleep yesterday morning.
Bozak is blind and deaf, so her bed at the New England Home for the Deaf in Danvers is rigged to vibrate when her life is in danger.
“I’m sure my bed’s still shaking,” the elegant 62-year-old said through an interpreter who communicated by entwining fingers with her. “But obviously, I didn’t have time to shut it off.”
Some confined to wheelchairs, others still huddled beneath crocheted throws snatched from their beds, 60 residents were evacuated from the assisted and independent living facility across the Waters River from the chemical plant where yesterday’s earth-shaking blasts originated. The residents were taken to the Danvers High School gym, and from there, to the Essex Park Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Beverly.
Their windows shattered and their doors blown from their hinges, these residents didn’t escape with much besides their sense of humor.
“I was sleeping. A book hit me,” said Ida Vernon, a 92-year-old deaf great-grandmother. “I thought it was God saying, ‘Wake up!’ So I said, ‘OK! I’m awake!’ But everything was on the floor.”
Volunteers skilled in sign language rushed to the gym to preside over bingo games and to interpret a pep talk by Gov. Mitt Romney.
Gary Petzold and his 7-month-old daughter Quinn drove from Dracut to bring his 84-year-old deaf mother, Pearl Petzold, home for the holidays.
Torn between tears and laughter, the elderly woman clutched her face and smothered Quinn with kisses when they reunited.
“We’re just so grateful no one was killed on Thanksgiving,” her son said.
Rosa LaRocque, a certified nursing assistant at the home, said, “The windows, the doors . . . they’re all gone. We thank God we’re alive. It’s what it’s all about.”