A Silent World

After watching This Morning, this morning, I felt compelled to write a blog post about Joanne Milne. Joanne was born profoundly deaf, it wasn’t until she was two-years-old when her mother was clapping in the garden, and Joanne didn’t react that they knew something was wrong. She was later diagnosed with having Usher Syndrome, and went on to attend a specialised deaf school until the age of seven, she then attended a mainstream school where there was a deaf unit attached to it. Joanne underwent speech therapy lessons, she learnt to lip-read to an extremely high standard and various lip patterns to try to speak in a similar way to those who are able to hear.

As I’ve mentioned before, my twin brother, Frazer has a high-pitch hearing loss, so this interview, of course hit home. My brother underwent the same operation for a cochlear implant, when he was just five-years old. This operation has enabled him to hear like you or I. Although his preferred way of communication is Sign Language, as hearing for him is something that takes a great deal of concentration. Watching the video of Joanne hearing for the first time, made my family and I feel so emotional, as we could relate to it. After my brother was implanted, the doctor was tapping a toy car on the table. For the first time, Frazer turned around to the doctor, put his finger to his mouth and went, ‘shhhh!’ as you can imagine my mother was in tears. As Milne said in her interview with Holly and Phil, ‘words cannot describe how overwhelming it was to hear for the first time.’ 

Joanne came across as such a lovely and bubbly lady. She tries not to see her disabilities as negative. It was interesting to get an insight from someone who hasn’t been able to hear for nearly 40-years, highlighting just how much we take for granted; sounds such as – your own breathing, a ticking clock, the birds and radio playing. Unfortunately, with her Usher Syndrome means she is also going blind, which is devastating. This is why she decided to take the big step to have an implant, so that she will no longer live in a silent world.

Here’s the link so you can watch her hearing for the first time, http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2014/mar/28/deaf-40-year-old-women-hears-sound-first-time-video 

I need to be more appreciative of what I have, we take these things such as – hearing, sight, smell etc. all for granted. I have been amazed and inspired by her and my brother! I hope you are too.

I’m off to start writing my university, manifesto on pornography. Yes, I did just write pornography, I love my degree. Haha.

Hope you’re having a good week.

Take care,

B x

You’re still my drug of choice

I love the weather. I like the fact that one day it can be scorching hot, sunbathing in your garden. Pretending you’re on the beach in Marbella, surrounded by delicious Spanish men, whilst sweating like an animal. Then in the blink of an eye, it can be pouring with rain. Raindrops the size of ping-pong balls, wind-screen wipers on full blast, and you’re digging out your anorak and Uggs from your closet that you were sure you weren’t going to need for a few months. At least.

I think of the weather like emotions, uncontrollable, inconsistent, unsure and confusing emotions. You never quite know what you’re going to get from day to day, which is the same with feelings.  I remember my GCSE poetry class at school, pathetic fallacy was one of my favourite things to write and learn about. This is probably because one of my favourite poems contains a lot of pathetic fallacy, Porphyria’s Love by Robert Browning.

With this in mind, there is so much flooding where I live. It’s crazy, the small village near me is quite literally underwater. My heart goes out to all of those people. Your home is an extension of your family. I would be devastated if anything was to happen to my home, especially all those sentimental things your home represents – like your chart of how much you grew every year as a child, your tenth Birthday when you had so much ice-cream you threw up, the day you moved in and chose your room, where your nephew took his first steps and so on.

So, whilst watching This Morning, the rain was pouring (I’m setting the scene for you), my sister, mother and I were having a cup of tea and then a downpour of tears hit the room, literally. We were watching Holly and Phil interview Sarah Gordy and Colin Young about their television debut on Call the Midwife; Sarah has Downs-Syndrome and Colin has Cerebral Palsy. This was always going to be an extremely emotive subject for my family, as my twin brother has Cerebral Palsy and a high-pitch hearing loss. It was an overwhelming interview, not just because both actors spoke so elequantly and beautifully about their roles and how terrible life was like for people living with a disability in the 1940s and 1950s, but they spoke with such an innocence. They almost played down their own difficulties, and said ‘we have come along way since then, but there is still along way to go.’ I wish the media and acting industries gave disabled people more of a chance, as Colin said – he would like to be considered for a role because of his acting ability, and his disability to come second to that. It’s hard enough to crack the acting world as it is, let alone having a disability thrown in too.

So, next time you’re out and you see someone with a disability, try not to think that this defines them. I’m so unbelievably proud of my brother and his achievements in life, he continues to amaze me, as do many disabled people. I know that sounds patronising, but if you were in that position would you be able to accomplish as much?

The story line also made me think about Valentine’s Day, as it is about falling in love. All everyone strives for is falling in love, finding someone to spend the rest of your life with, to have a family with, to be your best friend. I think the most painful thing about breaking up is losing your best friend, someone you tell everything to. Someone who you think, ‘I’ve got to call.. and tell them..’ But then, sometimes things just aren’t meant to be, they might be right, for right now. Not necessarily forever. Closure is essential, Sex in the City has served me well in that department. You need to close one door before you open another, unfinished business always comes round to bite you on the ars*. Times a healer.

Are you excited for Valentine’s? Sent your cards? I’m expecting one card, every year my mother never fails to disappoint me. A little card and pressie from an anonymous sender, bless her; she’s one in a million.

So make sure you watch Call the Midwife! The book is also a great read, as are all of Jennifer Worth’s, I can’t recommend them highly enough.

Have a lovely Valentine’s Day, whatever you’re doing. I shall be devouring a three-course meal with my brother, sister and brother-in-law, cannot wait.

Take care,

B x