Missing Letters
What one workshop in Louisville taught me about being my daughter’s ally
By Rizwana Jmari
The sentence on the screen had holes in it.
Kay_ee cou__ _ear e_ery__ing Mrs. _ura_ _aid, e_en __en __e _urned _o wri_e o_ the _oard.
I read it twice and got maybe half. Then Katherine Rybak put the same sentence back up in capital letters, bigger, and the holes sat in exactly the same places. Louder had changed nothing. The sentence was STILL broken.
Only on the third slide did it come whole. Kaylee could hear everything Mrs. Duran said, even when she turned to write on the board.
That was the moment the session earned me. Not because I learned something new about audiograms, but because I have spent years calling from another room in my own house, raising my voice at a child who could hear my volume perfectly well and was missing my consonants. Katherine had a slide for that further on. Instead of talking louder from a doorway, get her attention first, then speak. Instead of repeating the same sentence louder, rephrase it with different words. Small enough to fit on an index card, and I had been getting it wrong for years with the best intentions in the world.
Please see below for helpful resources and sharing:
Lisa Beth Davis and Joseph Snyder, longtime members of the chapter, are facing the unimaginable loss of their Altadena home of 21 years, destroyed in the Eaton Canyon fire. As proud U.S. Army veterans, they have generously offered their home for chapter events and providing support. Though they escaped with their lives and their beloved two kitties, they’ve lost everything and now need our help to rebuild.
We are thrilled to announce Fabiola Ramirez as the second recipient of the Young Adult Ambassador (YAA) Award! This chapter award recognizes exceptional young adults who are making an impact in the hearing loss community.
Sharon Swerdlow has been the LA Chapter president since September 2019 and previously had served on the Steering Committee for one year. Sharon brought her finance expertise, tireless energy, gift for gab, good humor, one hearing aid and one cochlear implant, and dedication to the LA Chapter. We were all motivated to support Sharon in her leadership role and the meetings were filled with useful information, fun, supportive spirit, and refreshments. Sharon led an exhaustive search for a new meeting location, endlessly researching possibilities of venues, and basically turning the town upside down with her determination and focus.
Do you know and understand what a “locked” hearing aid is? Perhaps you even have one and may not know it. Currently, there is an important assembly bill (AB435) in the California State legislature you should be aware of introduced by Assemblymember Kevin Mullin
It is with great pleasure that I thank the current HLAA-LA Steering Committee for the wonderful 15-Year Anniversary Celebration on Nov. 2, 2019. It was both informative and joyful! As one of the founders of this group, I could not be prouder.