The thing is

The post Love Life! appeared first on 'ear 'ear! by Gaynor Young.

As you all probably know, November/Movember is responsible for the sprouting of millions of moustaches around the world. With their Mo’s, men heighten awareness about prostate and testicular cancer as well as raising vital funds for further research into these diseases. I applaud this idea. Yes, certainly. But it is hellish for the deaf world! Why? Well, for deaf people lip reading naturally plays a vital part in our everyday communication. The Arab woman covering her face, only allowing her eyes to show makes lip reading impossible. In the same way, chaos is caused to the deaf world by the sudden growth of facial hair on men. The moustache covers the upper lip.  All of a sudden lip reading is made intensely difficult. Men are difficult to read as it is! Just about impossible with the caterpillar lounging quite comfortably on their upper lips!

Let me tell you about my moustache experience!

I was doing one of my favourite things, ambling around Woolworths, when suddenly I felt this tap on my shoulder. I turned to see the face of a man with a very large moustache. It was so large that I couldn’t see his lips but his eyes were dancing with life.

“Gaynor Young?” he asked.

I nodded and he said: “I saw….”

I interrupted him with a laugh.”I’m sorry but while your moustache is rather magnificent, it covers your lips. I am deaf and I need to lip read. Would you mind if I did this?” I placed my hand under his chin. “Now I can feel what you’re saying.”

“I watched you doing that to Derek Watts on Carte Blanche. (For those that don’t know, Derek Watts is the host for a documentary investigative program in SA called Carte Blanche) It’s amazing! I tried it and I can’t feel what a person’s saying. How do you do it?”

“My hearing and 60% of my eyesight were killed off. As a result my other senses rallied round! My sense of touch is now amazing.” I wriggled my fingers provocatively before him laughing.

He returned my laughter. “I’m sorry, I should have introduced myself. I’m Matthew Taylor.

Everyone calls me Matt.”  We chatted together for a while and them I looked at my watch. “I must shoot,” I said, ” my rehearsal starts at ten.”

“Hey, are you acting again?”

“No, not acting. Those days are over but I am performing in my one woman show Gaynor Rising. It opens in a month at the Kwasuka Theatre. Please come?”

“Count me in. I’ll be there.”

Four weeks later I was performing in my show when I saw a familiar moustache dancing happily at one of my jokes. Matt had come! Afterwards, I met him in the bar. He had loved my show! He then bought my book and took down my cell phone number. He finished My Plunge to Fame the next day and phoned to say how much he had enjoyed it.  I invited him to lunch.

The doorbell rang. I gave a last check of my beautifully laid table and went to answer it. I opened the door to be met by this massive bunch of twenty-five yellow roses. “Ohhh,” I breathed. He moved the bunch and my world stood still. Matt’s beautiful mouth was grinning at me. His lips were deliciously gorgeous! The moustache had gone. “I thought it would make communicating easier,” he said.

Well, yes, I thought, I am very happy to ‘communicate’ with that mouth! How could I fail to be drawn in Matt’s direction? An un-mustached man with dancing eyes who gives you twenty-five yellow roses at lunch! That day a wonderful relationship began.

I have kept a letter he wrote to me……

     God was looking down at the people on earth, admiring his handiwork, ‘I’ve created a hardy yet loving people’ said he. ‘Sure there are bad elements, but that serves to fortify the human soul as well as providing balance. Without pitfalls there cannot be triumphs.’

    The Devil appeared and said, ‘sorry lot aren’t they! You know you were just lucky when I tested Job. I bet you if I tested another of your servants I could bring them to their knees. Send me whoever you wish and I’ll turn them to the dark side’.

    So God went to his angels and asked for a volunteer to silence the prince of darkness. All the angels quivered and were afraid for this was going to be a test of the limits of patience, courage and of love. One angel, God’s favourite, stepped forward and said ‘father, I’ll do it’. God said ‘you know that you will have to endure incredible suffering for a long time’. The angel replied, ‘it is the least I can do’.

    So God made his preparations. He knew that without the support of a loving family we are nothing. So the first task was to provide a loving home in the form of an earthly mother and father. To these two, God gave endless patience and love. He also gave them hearts that were capable of loving to the ends of the earth and to carry an enormous amount of heartache.

    And so the stage was set. God sent down his favourite angel and said, ‘my child you are to endure terrible suffering, but I will compensate you’. With that, the angel set about the business of living a life on earth.

    The years went past until the Devil thought, ‘the time is right, look how happy that angel is. It is time to make life a misery’.

    And so a tragic accident took place. The next few years were filled with sorrow, pain, frustration and a deep sense of loss, for nothing would ever be the same again. The angel’s family rallied around and provided the support that God knew was needed.

    The angel adapted to a new way of life, unable to continue with the old one.

    The people all saw the angel’s pain, spirit, fortitude and big heart.

    Because of the suffering endured by this angel, many people were fortified knowing they had less to overcome.

    Because of the tremendous spirit shown by this angel, many people were heartened, knowing that we can endure more if we have to.

    Because this angel had no guile, was humble and still loved God, the Devil was vanquished in many hearts and turned away in defeat to find new prey.

    God compensated this angel with friends who loved her only as true friends can.

    Then I met you and my life was filled with song and my heart with love for Gods favourite angel.

    I am proud to call you my friend.

    Love Matt

The post To Grow or Not to Grow…..? appeared first on 'ear 'ear! by Gaynor Young.

I gave a talk at Fancourt.

I was sitting on the verandah talking to Mum and Dad afterwards, when one of the delegates from the conference came and crouched down by my chair. She had obviously been crying.

“Gaynor,  many years ago my husband was a paramedic working in Pretoria. I was with him in the ambulance when he was called out to The State Theatre to bring you in to hospital. Then because I am an ICU trained sister I assisted in your 6 hour operation. When you were eventually wheeled out I did not think that you would survive.

I heard that you were speaking today and I was terribly nervous. I didn’t know what to expect. Onto the stage walks this slim, beautiful, brunette who then proceeded to hold me captive for the entire seventy minutes that you spoke. I laughed; I cried. And the entire time I had these small chills that kept on racing up and down my spine. I kept on thinking: I am seeing a Miracle!”

You can imagine all of our reactions. I put my arms around her and said: “Thankyou! You are one of the reasons I am alive today!”

“No,” she said pointing upwards, “He is!”

The post Fancourt God! appeared first on 'ear 'ear! by Gaynor Young.

Isiah 40

When I had my accident I was deafened by my fall. I had no hearing whatsoever in my left ear and two percent hearing left in my right. I was, to put it bluntly, deaf! I had a lot wrong with me after my fall – my spasticity, my 40 percent eyesight, my speech was affected and my loss of memory. But it was the loss of my hearing that affected me the most. Communication is such an important part of life, isn’t it? Without communication one is living in a lost world. Not being able to speak was the most dreadful and frustrating thing. But I went twice a week to Speech Therapy and gradually was able to form words and finally sentences again.

But with my deafness, that was it. Finish en klaar! I used to lie in bed and pray: Lord, let me hear again? Please, Lord, put an end to me being deaf! It was as if someone had locked me in a dark room and thrown away the key. Not being able to communicate, I was lost in a world that try as I might, made little sense.

I had to discover other ways to live my life. Because I couldn’t hear what people were saying, I used to watch them. I picked up so much. Small things that normally I wouldn’t have noticed, told me a lot about a person. It made me wish that I had “looked” at people more beforehand. It would have made me more perceptive and would have given me greater insight. I found that I was open to other people’s vulnerabilities because I knew that place.

Before my accident I was a people person. I loved chatting, laughing, joking. I was a great party person! I was also a singer and many a happy evening was spent with me on my guitar and friends of the family sitting, drinks in hand, singing along. All of that changed after my accident. As a result of my deafness singing was a no no! I found it difficult communicating. This “people person” became a recluse.

And it got worse. It was discovered that I was losing what little hearing I had. Jenny Perold, my audiologist said that within a few months I would be totally deaf. With reservation she suggested a Cochlear Implant. I say – with reservation – because nobody knew what my brain was like. So, very hesitantly, we went ahead and the CI was performed.

Success!

I am now able to hear birds, childrens voices, the TV, music, films! I am able to sit at a dinner party and understand what people are saying! I thanked God over and over. And over yet again.

Because I had never heard a thing in my left ear, we never ever considered an implant. But Jenny and Dr Wagenveld had different ideas! An operation that should have taken two hours took three but Dr Derek (as I call him!) and Jenny walked out of the operating theatre with smiles on their faces. “We got a response on each of the twenty-two electrodes we put in! Gaynor will hear in that ear. We don’t know how much, but she will hear on that side again.”

And indeed I am! I am not hearing nearly as well as my right ear hears but that is to be expected. But my left ear can hear! And it will continue to improve.

I am so incredibly blessed. I think back to that girl praying to God to help her hear again. And He has. But in His own time. Maybe I had to grow more as a person.

God has enabled me to hear. But He hasn’t cured my deafness. Each time I lie down to go to sleep, I take my CI hearing appliances off. And I am reminded again of how great God is; how He enabled man to technologically create such a wonderful thing as a Cochlear Implant!

The post Isiah 40! appeared first on 'ear 'ear! by Gaynor Young.

For twenty three years my left ear had been dead, killed in my eighteen metre fall. On Monday it was resurrected back to life through a Cochlear Implant. Sound came exploding back with a vigour and at times unpleasant force.

Mum, Liz and I trooped into Jenny’s office. Once I had sat down, she pulled a black suitcase towards me.

“This is yours,” she said opening it. It was choc-a-bloc full of small boxes that varied in size. Each of the boxes held some accoutrement to go with my Cochlear Implant. Once we had gone through the suitcase with Jenny ticking items off she pushed it to one side.

“Right, let’s get you hearing again,”she said with a gleam in her eye.

“How do you know the operation worked? Everyone is presuming I’ll hear again. The operation might have been a flop!”

“Not according to your response during the operation. Hook this behind your ear.” She passed me a small hook that was attached to a long wire connected to her computer. “Now take your other hearing appliance off.” I did so. “Okay, let’s go and look for that hearing!”

Jenny told me to tell her whenever I heard a sound. She pressed three keys and we were off.

“Listen” is the wrong word for what I then proceeded to do. I would close my eyes and it felt as if I would dig deep into the various passage ways of my brain as I searched for those sounds.

“Yes, Jen, there were three sounds there but I didn’t “hear” them, I “felt” them.”

Jenny apparently said out loud to Mum and Liz, “She heard them!”

A few moments later…”Yes, I felt three sounds again. But these three sounds were at a very high pitch and I didn’t hear…”

“…them you felt them,” Jenny finished for me.

And we continued like this for the next hour? Then Jen said: “Right, I’m going now to press a switch and let’s see what you hear.” I would love to say that the switch was pressed and the world and all it’s wonderful sounds came tumbling into my life. But it didn’t work like that. I waited in breathless anticipation and then my first sound arrived – television snow! LOUDLY! It was horrific. I said so to Jen and she twiddled a few keys and then my snow turned into a hive of angry bees.

“What are you hearing?”

“Bees. Thousands of bees.” Jen didn’t look perturbed. “Angry bees, Jenny!” A few more keys were pressed and their anger diminished but they still buzzed about.

“Can you hear me?” I saw her saying. And that was when I lost it completely. I burst into a flood of helpless tears. If this was what what living with sound in my left ear was going to be like than no, thankyou! I had never been mad about bees. Liz shoved a tissue into my hand and I sobbed into it. But the bees seemed to be getting less. I blew my nose and wiped my cheeks and the bees seemed to stop. I cocked my head, waiting for them to re-appear but no bee came near me.

“Oh, they’ve gone now.”

“I’m glad,” I saw Jenny saying. Hold on, I wasn’t only seeing her say it. I was hearing her say it. It was as if she was playing the game we used to play as children with a hosepipe. One person would speak down the hosepipe and the other around the corner would lift the hosepipe to her ear and hear the message and duly reply. Jenny was hosepipe speaking! I told her this. More fiddling on the computer and it was better. I put on my right CI appliance and hell, that felt good hearing from both sides at the same time. It felt marvellous! Jenny chatted to the three of us and I…could…hear…them! Initially I had to see their lips when they spoke but as time passed so this wonderful left ear of mine began to stretch its muscles and truly wake up. I was listening to them speak with both ears! I was listening to them speak with my resurrected left ear and it felt pretty good. Then Jenny said: “I am just going to switch off your left ear because I need to make some adjustments. Your right one will be on though.” And she switched it off. The silence on my left was startling. It was actually horrific! Is this how I’ve been living for the past twenty three years? I felt lopsided.

I felt incomplete.

That was the most startling discovery I made that Monday. The fact that with my left ear working I feel – whole. I feel complete!

I look forward to Thursday where Jenny will work more miracles on her wonderful computer and cause this left ear to hear more…..and more…..and more!

I am so incredibly blessed!

And thankful. My gratitude to the people that thought and prayed for me knows no bounds. But – don’t sit back and think: Oh, great, prayers and positive thoughts are over. No, I still need a whole lot more.

I will tell you when to stop!!!

The post Oh, the buzzing of the bees…..! appeared first on 'ear 'ear! by Gaynor Young.

The post Miracle Man! appeared first on 'ear 'ear! by Gaynor Young.