Linda's Hearing Aid Fund!
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I'm starting this GoFundMe page for my new, but very dear, friend, Linda. She and I both started working together for FlyLady Premium just a few months ago and we just "clicked". We soon found out that we share something in common, hearing loss. My son has hearing loss and wears hearing aids just like Linda and two of her children. Linda recently shared that she needs new hearing aids, but can't afford them right now. I've decided to start this fundraiser to help her get her aids a little quicker!! I hope Linda's friends and family will shower her with love and support and will help her get to better hearing soon! Love, Annie Wygant Here's Linda's blog post about it...
I am going to talk about something I very rarely do. I am not doing it for your pity, or for your praise. I am doing it for your understanding, for my healing, and for my family.
When I was little the doctors told my parents I had a mild hearing loss. They said I needed tubes in my ears, so when I was five that is what we did. I remember the surgery, and being in the hospital. I remember it hurt and I had to stay overnight for reasons I don’t know. However the doctors said it would cure me of my hearing loss. Years later the tubes came out, but the hearing loss remained. Oh well, didn’t work they said. Then when I was in 5th grade my hearing slipped to moderate so they gave me hearing aids. I thought they were so cool. I thought they made me special, and I could hear pretty good with them. I went to school and showed them off to everyone. I was so excited. I was pretty popular and had tons of friends in and out of school. I went from person to person telling them all about my new “ears”. Kids at that age can be very curious so you can imagine the crowd I drew. I loved the attention, I basked in it, I just didn’t know it was about to turn on me. It wasn’t long before curiosity turned to something else, something no child wants. I was teased, but honestly not that much. It was the silence that got me. The other kids stopped playing with me, stopped talking to me, and stopped being my friends. My status as popular dropped to not so popular. I no longer thought my hearing aids were cool, I now wanted them gone, and that is just what I did. I hid them every chance I got even though my parents paid a lot of money for them. I would leave the house with them in and on my walk to school take them out. When the school told my parents I wasn’t wearing them I just flat out refused. There was nothing they could do. Thank God a found a few good friends who stuck by me, and I am even friends with a few of them still today. Back then I vowed to never give anyone reason to not like me ever again.
From that day until I was 27 years old I just didn’t wear hearing aids. Yes I needed them, but I wasn’t ready to go down that road again. I made it all through school without them and did well. Jon married me knowing full well my past and it never once mattered to him. I warned him my hearing would get worse over time, that most likely my children would be hearing impaired as well, but it was if I was speaking a foreign language because he just didn’t care. That sealed the deal for me right then and there.
Why at 27 did I change my mind? Three reasons; Dylan, Haley, and Taylor. They were about 18 months old and I wanted to be able to hear them talk, and babble, and all the beautiful soft sounds babies make. My new hearing aids were unnatural feeling and I was super self conscious of them, but I could hear my babies and that is all that mattered. I wore my hair down for years, and never let on I had them. People would notice of course, but I wasn’t telling. In Savannah everyone was so sweet about it I started to open up and let them show more and more. When we moved back to NJ I had more confidence with them, and wore them without thinking about it. With Dylan and Haley having them too I needed to set the example for them. It was never easy but I did it. About 8 years ago I got new hearing aids after my hearing slipped even further into severe. Again the devices are not perfect and even though technology has come a long way they still can be bothersome. Even with their drawbacks they certainly helped more than hurt. They allowed me to be 100% in the world. I can communicate with others and you would never know without them I am practically deaf. Wonderous little devices that could keep me in the hearing world. Until now.
For longer than I care to think my current hearing aids have been slowly breaking down. They are only meant for about 5 years and mine are well over that limit. I have had them repaired to the point the company will no longer do it. Last week one said its goodbyes and permanently shorted out. Today it’s mate decided to do the same. That leaves me here sharing my story. It is about time I did this. It is about time I went public. It is about time I let go of the fear. I am deaf. I am without over 90% of my hearing. I am going to have to adjust. I am going to be uncomfortable. I am going to be stuck in two worlds with communicating. But most of all I am going to be ok. God has a plan for me, He is going to use this as something bigger than me not hearing. This is not the worst thing to happen to me, not even close by a mile. If you are thinking “She never catches a break it seems, MS, cancer, surgery, now this.” Don’t. I do not see my life as a series of trials. I see my life as opportunities of all kinds. Without the struggles we would never know our strengths. I am grateful, thankful, and on my knees in praise to God for every single thing good or bad. We don’t get to choose what happens to us in life, we didn’t buy the delux easy life package. No one told us at birth it would be candy, sparkle, rainbows until the end. You all know this, most of you have been through worse, and yet here you still are. Through illness, loss so great you can barely breath, trials, and even victories we are still here. We dig deep, we hold on, and we carry on. It’s what we do, it’s who we are.
I will be different. I will change. I won’t hear you if you call my name, or see me passing by. I will try to learn a new language with my hands, I will be exhausted from trying to hear what you say. I won’t seem as engaged, but I promise you I will be more than ever. When you can not hear you try and pick up on clues like body language, gestures, smiles, reading lips. I won’t be able to be distracted, so please be patient. I will look the same, this is a truly invisible disability. If you want to help you can. Speak clearly, don’t turn away, try not to get frustrated repeating your words, I promise you it is more frustrating to me asking you to do it. Most of all don’t stop talking to me, one on one I can do pretty good. Don’t let me disappear. Dont let me slip from the hearing world. I will rise from this. In time new aids will be an option. Until then I plan to live my life just like before. I plan to go out and do all the things I love, with all the people I love. This will not stop me or slow me down. I will be right here experiencing life in the face paced crazy way I always do. It will just be a little quieter. Which just might not be such a bad thing.
I am going to talk about something I very rarely do. I am not doing it for your pity, or for your praise. I am doing it for your understanding, for my healing, and for my family.
When I was little the doctors told my parents I had a mild hearing loss. They said I needed tubes in my ears, so when I was five that is what we did. I remember the surgery, and being in the hospital. I remember it hurt and I had to stay overnight for reasons I don’t know. However the doctors said it would cure me of my hearing loss. Years later the tubes came out, but the hearing loss remained. Oh well, didn’t work they said. Then when I was in 5th grade my hearing slipped to moderate so they gave me hearing aids. I thought they were so cool. I thought they made me special, and I could hear pretty good with them. I went to school and showed them off to everyone. I was so excited. I was pretty popular and had tons of friends in and out of school. I went from person to person telling them all about my new “ears”. Kids at that age can be very curious so you can imagine the crowd I drew. I loved the attention, I basked in it, I just didn’t know it was about to turn on me. It wasn’t long before curiosity turned to something else, something no child wants. I was teased, but honestly not that much. It was the silence that got me. The other kids stopped playing with me, stopped talking to me, and stopped being my friends. My status as popular dropped to not so popular. I no longer thought my hearing aids were cool, I now wanted them gone, and that is just what I did. I hid them every chance I got even though my parents paid a lot of money for them. I would leave the house with them in and on my walk to school take them out. When the school told my parents I wasn’t wearing them I just flat out refused. There was nothing they could do. Thank God a found a few good friends who stuck by me, and I am even friends with a few of them still today. Back then I vowed to never give anyone reason to not like me ever again.
From that day until I was 27 years old I just didn’t wear hearing aids. Yes I needed them, but I wasn’t ready to go down that road again. I made it all through school without them and did well. Jon married me knowing full well my past and it never once mattered to him. I warned him my hearing would get worse over time, that most likely my children would be hearing impaired as well, but it was if I was speaking a foreign language because he just didn’t care. That sealed the deal for me right then and there.
Why at 27 did I change my mind? Three reasons; Dylan, Haley, and Taylor. They were about 18 months old and I wanted to be able to hear them talk, and babble, and all the beautiful soft sounds babies make. My new hearing aids were unnatural feeling and I was super self conscious of them, but I could hear my babies and that is all that mattered. I wore my hair down for years, and never let on I had them. People would notice of course, but I wasn’t telling. In Savannah everyone was so sweet about it I started to open up and let them show more and more. When we moved back to NJ I had more confidence with them, and wore them without thinking about it. With Dylan and Haley having them too I needed to set the example for them. It was never easy but I did it. About 8 years ago I got new hearing aids after my hearing slipped even further into severe. Again the devices are not perfect and even though technology has come a long way they still can be bothersome. Even with their drawbacks they certainly helped more than hurt. They allowed me to be 100% in the world. I can communicate with others and you would never know without them I am practically deaf. Wonderous little devices that could keep me in the hearing world. Until now.
For longer than I care to think my current hearing aids have been slowly breaking down. They are only meant for about 5 years and mine are well over that limit. I have had them repaired to the point the company will no longer do it. Last week one said its goodbyes and permanently shorted out. Today it’s mate decided to do the same. That leaves me here sharing my story. It is about time I did this. It is about time I went public. It is about time I let go of the fear. I am deaf. I am without over 90% of my hearing. I am going to have to adjust. I am going to be uncomfortable. I am going to be stuck in two worlds with communicating. But most of all I am going to be ok. God has a plan for me, He is going to use this as something bigger than me not hearing. This is not the worst thing to happen to me, not even close by a mile. If you are thinking “She never catches a break it seems, MS, cancer, surgery, now this.” Don’t. I do not see my life as a series of trials. I see my life as opportunities of all kinds. Without the struggles we would never know our strengths. I am grateful, thankful, and on my knees in praise to God for every single thing good or bad. We don’t get to choose what happens to us in life, we didn’t buy the delux easy life package. No one told us at birth it would be candy, sparkle, rainbows until the end. You all know this, most of you have been through worse, and yet here you still are. Through illness, loss so great you can barely breath, trials, and even victories we are still here. We dig deep, we hold on, and we carry on. It’s what we do, it’s who we are.
I will be different. I will change. I won’t hear you if you call my name, or see me passing by. I will try to learn a new language with my hands, I will be exhausted from trying to hear what you say. I won’t seem as engaged, but I promise you I will be more than ever. When you can not hear you try and pick up on clues like body language, gestures, smiles, reading lips. I won’t be able to be distracted, so please be patient. I will look the same, this is a truly invisible disability. If you want to help you can. Speak clearly, don’t turn away, try not to get frustrated repeating your words, I promise you it is more frustrating to me asking you to do it. Most of all don’t stop talking to me, one on one I can do pretty good. Don’t let me disappear. Dont let me slip from the hearing world. I will rise from this. In time new aids will be an option. Until then I plan to live my life just like before. I plan to go out and do all the things I love, with all the people I love. This will not stop me or slow me down. I will be right here experiencing life in the face paced crazy way I always do. It will just be a little quieter. Which just might not be such a bad thing.
Organizer and beneficiary
Annie Wygant
Organizer
Westwood, NJ
Linda Andresen
Beneficiary
