J ennifer Thorpe not only has a
hearing loss, she has a family too.
Often people say it’s the family’s hear-
language classes. Then I continued the
speech classes at school.
In second grade, I was assigned a
By Jennifer Thorpe
soon after that he needed a brother to
play cowboys and Indians with, but
instead, over the next few years, he was
ing loss, not just the person with it. teacher’s aide. Mrs. Woods faithfully blessed with Katie, Rachel, Claire, and
Read how a wife and mother of five took notes, made sure we had good Ellie … four beautiful sisters who did
balances it all. seating and reminded me to “pay atten- not share his interests at all.
In March of 1976, when I was four tion!” for the next five years (rightfully
years old, my parents, my two younger so, as I had the attention span of a gnat Managing with Hearing Loss
brothers, my grandparents, and I all when it came to school work and she As a small child, I learned that my
climbed into a brilliant orange Volk- earned her money honestly). hearing loss made me “different.” When
swagen van and left central Tennessee, I graduated from high school in my family and I made the joint decision
and headed for Virginia. As the story 1989 and decided to give college a try. after my seventh grade year that I didn’t
goes, I fell asleep in the backseat of the At that time I had no strong aspirations need an aide anymore, I embraced that
van, and half an hour later woke up to be anything, although I was most in- opportunity to attempt to blend into
almost totally unable to hear. terested in special education and Eng- the “normal” world. I became very
My parents were not completely lish. I just felt that college was some- dependent on speechreading. I got
taken by surprise, as they had already thing that I should do, and I did it. I more information from what I saw
noticed that my hearing seemed to didn’t do it very well though because I than from what I heard. If I couldn’t
fluctuate quite a bit, but this was a was far too social, and uninterested in see your face, chances were that I had
defining moment. This time the loss focusing on studies. After three semes- no idea what you were saying.
was sudden and quite severe. The ters of a rather disappointing academic I downplayed my hearing loss to
family trip to Virginia was cut short. career, the school and my parents both my husband for years. I never asked for
Back home, visits with the hearing strongly suggested that I take a break help unless it was absolutely necessary.
specialists started. from higher education. As a result, he treated me as a hearing
person, which frustrated me badly at
Simply Me
times. He didn’t seem to realize how
much I struggled…but that was my
fault, because I wasn’t honest about
needing help. Later when I suddenly
lost all of my hearing and was left
completely deaf for a period of time,
that was a huge adjustment. He had
to be my ears all the time.
The search for the cause of the From the Altar to Baby Bottles From the day my babies were
loss provided no answers; it was finally Less than a year later, I was invited to
born, they slept with me in our bed.
simply labeled as “idiopathic bilateral a Bible study by one of my friends.
My husband worked nights when
hearing los