Miss-Delectable
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The Buffalo News: Opinion: Parents bridged gap between deaf, hearing
Another year has passed. I am now at the age of my deceased parents. Where has the time gone? It seems like the blink of an eye.
I remember my first day of kindergarten. There stood my teacher, whom I had never met, and I was scared because I was leaving my mom. In those days, most children had never been away from their parents.
Some kids were crying, “no, mommy, don’t go.” I would have cried out to my mom, too, but she wouldn’t have heard me. My mom was deaf, and so was my dad.
I grew up in two worlds, the deaf and the hearing.
I recall my mom shaping my right hand and helping me form the sign for “a.” It is made with the fingers being pressed down into the palm, like a fist. Then the thumb is up straight against the
bent first finger. Mom also made a distorted “a” sound from her throat.
My parents taught my two older brothers and me to communicate with them by sign language. I learned hand signs for mother, father, eat, milk, tired, up, down and others before I was even a year old. I learned to talk with the help of my brothers, grandparents and an aunt who visited us.
My mom was born deaf. The doctors did not know until she did not respond to her parents’ voices as an infant. Her parents enrolled her in the Rochester School for the Deaf when she was 3.
My father contracted scarlet fever at age 3 and lost his hearing and speech. He began attending St. Mary’s School for the Deaf at age 4 and lived there for most of his school years.
Both schools used American Sign Language by spelling out words and signed with hand movements to communicate faster. Students learned the three R’s — reading, writing and arithmetic — just like hearing children. However, teachers also taught them to make vocal sounds. Students could feel the vibration by putting their hand to their throat and watching their mouth in a mirror forming the word.
Students also were trained for jobs, and they proved to be very productive workers. They relied on paper and pencil in order to communicate with the hearing.
I once heard children mocking my parents and me when my parents emitted guttural sounds as they signed. The children had no idea I could hear or talk. They probably would have jumped in shock if I had spoken to them.
When I graduated from high school, my parents sat in silence for hours just to see me walk across the stage to get my diploma. That meant a lot to me.
In our house, my parents had a door bell with a light bulb attached. It blinked on and off to alert my parents when someone was at the door. Their alarm clock had a built-in light to wake them. Those were the only devices that aided the deaf then.
We did not have a television set or a telephone until the 1950s. Today, there is closed captioning on TV, and TTY phones for the hearing impaired. Many deaf people own cell phones that vibrate, rather than ring, and allow them to send text messages to the caller.
And cochlear transplants, unheard of years ago, now help some deaf people to hear.
My father died 30 years ago, when I was 34. Mom died nine months later. She missed her soul mate and best friend for 43 years. I truly appreciate the special parents God selected for me.
Another year has passed. I am now at the age of my deceased parents. Where has the time gone? It seems like the blink of an eye.
I remember my first day of kindergarten. There stood my teacher, whom I had never met, and I was scared because I was leaving my mom. In those days, most children had never been away from their parents.
Some kids were crying, “no, mommy, don’t go.” I would have cried out to my mom, too, but she wouldn’t have heard me. My mom was deaf, and so was my dad.
I grew up in two worlds, the deaf and the hearing.
I recall my mom shaping my right hand and helping me form the sign for “a.” It is made with the fingers being pressed down into the palm, like a fist. Then the thumb is up straight against the
bent first finger. Mom also made a distorted “a” sound from her throat.
My parents taught my two older brothers and me to communicate with them by sign language. I learned hand signs for mother, father, eat, milk, tired, up, down and others before I was even a year old. I learned to talk with the help of my brothers, grandparents and an aunt who visited us.
My mom was born deaf. The doctors did not know until she did not respond to her parents’ voices as an infant. Her parents enrolled her in the Rochester School for the Deaf when she was 3.
My father contracted scarlet fever at age 3 and lost his hearing and speech. He began attending St. Mary’s School for the Deaf at age 4 and lived there for most of his school years.
Both schools used American Sign Language by spelling out words and signed with hand movements to communicate faster. Students learned the three R’s — reading, writing and arithmetic — just like hearing children. However, teachers also taught them to make vocal sounds. Students could feel the vibration by putting their hand to their throat and watching their mouth in a mirror forming the word.
Students also were trained for jobs, and they proved to be very productive workers. They relied on paper and pencil in order to communicate with the hearing.
I once heard children mocking my parents and me when my parents emitted guttural sounds as they signed. The children had no idea I could hear or talk. They probably would have jumped in shock if I had spoken to them.
When I graduated from high school, my parents sat in silence for hours just to see me walk across the stage to get my diploma. That meant a lot to me.
In our house, my parents had a door bell with a light bulb attached. It blinked on and off to alert my parents when someone was at the door. Their alarm clock had a built-in light to wake them. Those were the only devices that aided the deaf then.
We did not have a television set or a telephone until the 1950s. Today, there is closed captioning on TV, and TTY phones for the hearing impaired. Many deaf people own cell phones that vibrate, rather than ring, and allow them to send text messages to the caller.
And cochlear transplants, unheard of years ago, now help some deaf people to hear.
My father died 30 years ago, when I was 34. Mom died nine months later. She missed her soul mate and best friend for 43 years. I truly appreciate the special parents God selected for me.