Simmie Enters a New World

“What’s that sound?”
“It’s the car shifting gears.”
“Do you mean people actually hear that?”
“Yes.”
“What do I hear?”
“That’s water running in the other room.”
“Oh, my goodness. I can hear that all the way in here.”
Time to fix dinner. Time to wash the snap peas. Snap. Snap. Snap.
“It’s fun to snap peas when you can hear them snap!”

Today, July 14, 2009, my friend Simmie said goodbye to the self she has known for 57 years and hello to a brand new Simmie. She was not baptized in water. Nor did she today begin a new life of marriage to her wonderful Brent. Or enter into the fullness of her faith in the Roman Catholic Church. Those events of her past cannot be separated from her.

No. Today my friend who was born profoundly deaf, and who did not receive her first hearing aid until age 11, had her Cochlear Implant activated. Forever, profound deafness is behind her. The world of hearing is now open before her. And it is an entire world.

She has not known the sounds of the small bird in the nest crying for it’s mother, water quietly moving over rocks in a brook, leaves rustling gently to soft breezes, or distant thunder. She has not known when a faucet is dripping behind her, or the tap tap tap of the computer keys as she composes her literary works. She has not heard the wee small voices of her grandchildren as babies, or even her own children. She has not known the whisper of her husband saying, I love you. The list of unknown sounds is, literally, unending.

Simmie entered this day with hope and expectation. She entered with certainty that the dreams not yet fulfilled which God has written in her heart will become reality through the path of the Cochlear Implant.

Today Simmie is a new creation.
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Do you know anyone with a similar story?
Have you been on this journey?
Were the initial hopes met? Was it more difficult than expected?
I have another friend whose journey is heading in the opposite direction. At the age of 27, nine years ago, she began losing her hearing. She is now nearly totally deaf. She is learning Simmie’s courage and strength to go forward from another point in life. It has not been easy, to say the least. But she is stronger for it and is changing lives around her because of her will to move ahead and continue to make a difference in every way possible.
Do you know anyone experiencing my friend Shanna’s changes?