I have been a bit quiet of late – my time seems to have been
otherwise occupied. Recently I have been
more of a Baby Boomer who writes fiction, rather than someone who writes Baby
Boomer fiction. I have been getting to
grips with issues that concern our age group like hearing loss and the
different types of hearing aid available – something I knew nothing whatsoever
about. Not for me but for my
husband. His hearing has been
deteriorating over the years, particularly on his right side where he suffered
a rugby injury in his youth. Over the
last few years I have frequently suggested he get his hearing tested, as have
our two adult daughters but he has prevaricated. Admitting to hearing loss is presumably acknowledging
that one is getting older, which none of us seem prepared to do these
days. (When my mother was in her 50s she
wore suitable clothing for her age, skirts and little jackets which she called
a costume – the thought of my late mother in the nowadays ubiquitous jeans is
mind boggling). We all jog, exercise,
go to the gym, do whatever it takes in an effort to deny the inevitable. But I
digress. The way I got Colin, my
husband, to get his hearing tested was, I admit, devious. A hearing aid company came to my bridge club
and did a presentation. They invited
members to fill in forms with a chance of winning a full hearing
assessment. I filled in the form in
Colin’s name! So they called him and
made an appointment. Now he is trying
out hearing aids – a free trial. He
finds them a bit obtrusive but I find they make a huge difference in my life (I
hadn’t realised I was having to raise my voice so he could hear me, also we can
have the television on so much more quietly) so I can only imagine what a difference they make
to him - he is amazed at the birdsong from our little garden as well as able
to have a normal telephone conversation. He still isn’t sure if he wants one or two
hearing aids so is trying combinations.
I thought naively that perhaps just one in the weaker ear would suffice
but that didn’t work nearly as well as just one in the better ear. Now the big issue is not hearing so much as
listening! He’s had an excuse over the
last few years – he has always said he didn’t hear when I knew for certain he
wasn’t listening – well there are no more excuses now!
Another age related issue is of course eye sight. I have tried eye exercises, though not as faithfully
as I should, but still find I need glasses for reading. So partly why I love my kindle, aside from
its portability and the ease of downloads, is that I have increased the font
size and don’t need my glasses for reading anymore which I find great. I don’t know why they don’t use this as a
selling point. My sister recently bought
a kindle for an elderly friend who was having trouble reading due to macular
degeneration for this very reason.
I was reading recently that John Grisham hates research – I have
to agree with him I’m afraid. I also
have the fear that what I have read, even from several sources might not be
100% accurate so I far prefer writing about
things I have experienced myself, either first hand or from close
observation. So the issue of what they
call ‘age related hearing loss’ might well crop up in one of my future books.
Till next time J
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