Mineral Wells Index - Sunday, March 14, 2004
What's that you say?
Thanks to hearing center, Colon can now hear the replies to his insults
If You Ask Me… BY GUINN SWEET
Aural history is being made! As we speak, one era is ending and another is on the brink of emerging. Colon is getting another set of hearing aids and our conversations will become quiet, relaxing, informative, understandable, but most importantly, quiet. I will explain.
My husband's hearing has been assaulted just about all his life by a series of activities which, compounded over the years, has left him almost totally, functionally deafened. When he was a youngster, he was, exposed to long summer days of unmuffled farm machinery noise. Just out of high school, the Navy assigned him to the thunderous noise of an engine room aboard a troop carrier on the way to the South Pacific. Kamikaze and bombing of Iwo Jima and Okinawa continued the onslaught of noise and when he returned to "normal" life, he was employed by Ford Motor Co. in their assembly plant, followed by a 30-year career as a mechanic for American Airlines, with the workshops on or very near the flight lines.
The final straw which, for the nearly 25 years of his retirement, has been the ear-splitting, window shattering volume of watching TV news. If he were allowed to add one other factor to that list, he might mention my input by "nagging" about getting hearing aids. Oh, yes, he has had one set, but he kept taking them out and laying them aside (when they "bothered" him), until he lost them. Our daughters even bought him some cheap aids, not wanting to spend much on something he might lose. He has had his chance!
The vaunted "Information Privacy Act" was adopted by American Airlines this past year, which precluded my asking and receiving any information of our retirement benefits or any questions regarding insurance payments for my corneal transplant. It was necessary that inquiries come from him and the answers go directly to him. Lengthy and formal telephone conversations are beyond his participation and patience.
Enter Anne's Hearing Aid Center of Weatherford. A couple of months ago, Jim and Anne Winquist made an offer to the Senior Center to give free hearing tests to the participants, with qualification of hearing losses so profound that free telephones for the hard of hearing could be procured. They also gifted the center with an outdoor bench for the front entry. Colon was coerced to go take the test, if for nothing but the telephone. At the first meeting, he was confrontational and adopted a "show me" attitude with Mr. Winquist. Jim read him like a book and accepted the challenge. It has been riotous and funny ever since.
Colon would not accept the expense of the new digital aids proposed by the level of his hearing loss, but he was adamant about getting the telephone. There was a mix-up in the mailing of the required "voucher" from the State Commission for the Deaf, and we have yet to see the telephone, but it has given "Wink" and Colon an opportunity to have many arguments and to make many accusations about the other's guilt in the matter.
Last week, Wink delivered a number of free telephones to others at the center, sort of proving that he was doing everything right. The blame was placed where it should have been, on Colon. He came home and scrounged around, found one of his old hearing aids and took it to Anne's Hearing Aid Center and told them to see if it could be fixed.
To make a short story long, as I have already done, those dear people undertook to do just that. At this moment, a newly reconditioned aid is awaiting the completion of new ear molds. Yes, I am talking in the plural sense, here. Not only did Wink get the old one repaired, he found another used aid among some of his "trade-ins" which has a proper level of compatibility with Colon's original. It is now undergoing reconditioning, both aids and ear molds will be ready next week and Colon is beside himself, and cost has been kept to a minimum. Now he will be able to hear me talk to him and he will answer without shouting. Now he can watch the TV weather and not have to ask me "What did he say?" Now he will be able to talk on the telephone. Now he will be able to insult Wink and hear his response.
The generosity and concern that has been shown by the Winquists toward us has been comforting and profitable for us. It is fun to witness the give-and-take between the two men, each one trying to get one up on the other, so to speak. It is encouraging to see integrity and dedication in the workplace, accommodated by expertise. It is obvious, by the atmosphere in their shop, that money is not the primary reason for their operation, but it is also apparent, by the quality of their product, that much cost is incurred by them in the provision of the same.
The Sweet family thanks Anne's Hearing Aid Center in Weatherford. Now I am working on a method for a permanent attachment for the ears. |
