For many years, my grandfather served our country in the Armed Forces. As a fighter jet trainer, he served in War World 2, where he was exposed to extremely loud, constant noise, which led to a severe noise induced hearing loss.
For years, my grandfather denied he experienced any kind of hearing impairment, a fact my grandmother, Margaret, hotly contested. Eventually, it was with her help that my grandfather purchased hearing aids. Knowing how severe his hearing was, my grandmother wanted him to have the best technology available and bought him a $2,000 pair of hearing aids.
Needless to say, he still couldn’t hear it thunder. Every time I called him, we would spend 10 minutes trying to help him understand who was on the phone. Most of the time he simply got fed up and said, “Here, talk to Margaret.”
Then, I got him a C430 for Father’s Day. I easily installed and programmed the phone for him without telling him it was a phone for the hard of hearing. I simply explained to my grandmother that I would call my grandfather during lunch, and asked her to make sure he picked up the phone.
As lunchtime rolled around, I dialed the number, and sure enough, grandpa said, “hello.”
“Hey grandpa, whatcha doin,” I asked.
“Nothing, kid,” he replied. “When you coming over?”
Posted by Kelly Cagle, Clarity
Technorati tags: Hearing Loss, Hearing Aids, World War 2, Veteran, Father's Day, Clarity