By Susannah Bianchi
I keep getting asked, what's it like having to wear a mask, when you have hearing loss?
What's it like?
It's taken isolation to a whole new level, that's what it's like, since communication has been severely cut in half.
For instance, I'm in a drugstore. A middle-aged man, after seeing that I'm looking for something, comes over to help. He's wearing a mask, plus a plastic visor over it that makes him look like a race car driver.
When I kindly say, “Sir, I can't hear you,” he of course, being in two layers, can't hear me either.
Imagine two people watching a foreign film with no subtitles.
After a few tries, I turn and leave, in tears.
Whoever thought hearing loss would be heightened in a way that even technology can’t help since, those of us hearing impaired during COVID-19 are pretty much on our own.
I don't think others are cruel on purpose since, none of us, during this tender time, are at our best, but it's challenging nonetheless, even close to home.
My next-door neighbor, I'm friendly with, is so frightened, she won't even loosen her mask 10 feet away in order for us to talk. I finally said, maybe our relationship, for now, should be strictly a cyber one.
I said this warmly, but my heart was in a sling.
After feeling sorry for myself, I remember that self pity of any kind is fruitless, and I decide that acceptance is the only solution.
It's how it is, today. We don't know how it will be tomorrow and the tomorrows to come, but hope should never be canceled since hope often has the last say.
Taking a whiff of fresh air, which I'll never again take for granted.
There’s a quote I like by the writer, Maya Angelou:
"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
So I got up off the mat, brushed myself off, mask in place, and put one foot in front of the other.
I then went back to that drugstore and simply, in silence, found what I needed.
New York City resident Susannah Bianchi wrote the cover story for the Fall 2019 issue of Hearing Health.
