(All right, this is gonna be a bit of a read, but it made me so, so happy!)
My mother has had hearing damage and hearing loss her entire life. For all 21 of my years, she's always had a little trouble listening, as normal speech sounds like background noise to her, like TV static. We've always had to speak loudly so that she could understand us, and she needs people to speak and enunciate clearly, always have subtitles in media, and needs to face whoever is speaking to her if she wants to listen. Although she doesn't show it, it embarrasses her; she'd end up saying "Huh?" at last five times if someone isn't speaking loudly or clearly enough, and she'd be mortified by the thought of sounding like she's dumb. Not only does she have the pride of a lion, but she hates admitting that she needs help. She'd rather suffer and pretend everything's fine than alert everyone to the fact that something in her body doesn't work (for the longest time, it was like showing this vulnerability made her "weak" in the eyes of others, and would make her a target for bullying; let's be honest, were she a teenager, you could almost guarantee someone would've made fun of her for it.) She hates asking for help and accepting her problems.
Well, today, she hit me with an enormous surprise. Today, I discovered that she finally relented, asked a few doctors, and finally got a hearing aid. You see, we've discussed this in the past before, but back then, we never could've afforded it. Not to mention, she hated how visible they were, like a big sign that says "Hey! I have something wrong with me!" on flashing neon. I'd always told her she shouldn't have to feel embarrassed for it, but her opinion stuck. She didn't want others to know she was having trouble (and who am I kidding, I do it too, she's probably who I got the tendency from).
Today, she lifted her hair away from her ear, and pointed to the little pale device sitting in it, grinning widely. If my jaw wasn't attached, it would have hit the floor. I was so happy for her that I started crying on the spot. She hasn't been able to hear properly for her entire life; knowing that she finally can, and what her actions meant, made me overwhelmed with joy. It was like witnessing a mute become able to speak again, a paralysis victim become able to walk again, a colorblind person become able to see properly, a comatose patient finally waking up, memories returning for an amnesiac, a victim of cancer finally defeating the sickness. I couldn't help it, I was sobbing because of happy I was for her. When she told me she'd actually gotten it two days ago and was waiting to see if any of us would notice the difference, I started laughing, and i swear I would've popped her back if I'd hugged her any tighter.
She can hear conversations now. She can listen at safer volume levels now. It's easier to get her attention now. She's even more observant now. She can sing on key with her music now. There's so much she can do now, and it's making me wanna cry happily again just thinking about it. Im just so, so happy for her
Would I call this an X-mas miracle? Maybe
Would I say this is the best gift of the season for us all? Abso-friggin-lutely!
Im so happy for and proud of her!!!
