My husband did a terrific job of writing about his hearing loss today. He's a retired English professor, and I loved best this scene he wrote about from Great Expectations.
Mr. Wemmick is a character from Dickens’ “Great Expectations” who has a seriously hearing-impaired father he calls The Aged Parent or Aged P. Wemmick expresses his affection for the Aged P by giving him a sound he can hear. He enacts a “great nightly ceremony” with his father by firing off a cannon that’s loud enough to blow him out of his armchair. “He’s fired. I heerd him,” shouts the Aged P “exultingly.”
I wrote about Tony's hearing loss from a wife's point of view. Read here.
We started out thinking these essays would have more humor in them, but we realized it has been a bigger loss not being able to talk with one another without Tony wearing hearing aids and me facing him.
(S-R staff illustration by Molly Quinn)
Writer Catherine Johnston of Olympia, Wash., addresses issues facing aging baby boomers and seniors as well as issues of serious illness, death and dying, grief and loss.
Ask a question: Catherine welcomes questions about aging issues and grief. Email her at endnotescolumn@gmail.com.
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