I’ve always wanted to be Dear Abby. In the fourth grade, I taped an envelope to my school desk with the words “Have a question? Ask Shanna!” scribbled on it. Friends would write notes with questions about homework, friendship, and when to start dating (My advice to the latter: “You’re too young!”). So it seemed … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized …
Please Don’t Judge My Blog By Its Photo
I just had someone make fun of the photo above on my blog. Let me share the story of why I use it… Once upon a time, my sweet little girl, who has the prettiest smile I know, chipped and discolored her front tooth in a playground accident. She was 4 years old. On the … Continue reading
And the Winner of Lipreading Mom’s Captioned Movie Oscar Race Is…
I think we have an Oscar upset. In my quest to watch all of this year’s Academy Award nominees for Best Picture in their captioned glory, I’ve seen seven out of the nine films. In last week’s post, I was a Life of Pi fan, due to my inaugural experience with watching a 3-D movie … Continue reading
The Oklahoma Town Where My Hearing Loss Story Begins
Washita, Oklahoma, is the inspiration for my 2009 novel, Lip Reader, a story of one family dealing with genetic deafness. I hadn’t visited that town in 13 years, not until I drove down the dusty two-lane road in search of answers to my own hearing loss. The reason I wrote Lip Reader—a book that is … Continue reading
Lipreading Mom’s Nominees for Best Captioned Oscar Movie Are…
And the nominees for 2013 best (captioned) motion picture are… Okay, the Oscars don’t actually honor captioning. But in this day and age of many American movie theaters now showing first-run films captioned, it is a treat to visit the cinemaplexes where I live. For the next 30 days, I am on a mission to … Continue reading
How to Hear Someone on the Phone When You Have Hearing Loss
My ears have a love-hate relationship with the phone. For 12 years, I’ve struggled to hear conversations from a variety of telephones—a regular landline, amplified phone, mobile phone, cell phone with Bluetooth capabilities. I tried phone captioning, but the captions didn’t always interpret word-for-word. Sometimes the words were scrambled or misinterpreted. That’s why I loved … Continue reading
My Story of Tragedy … And Hope
It’s easy to go through the day feeling like nothing special or out of the ordinary can happen. As a Lipreading Mom with progressive hearing loss for almost 12 years, I often have my moments of feeling unsure about the future. But when I’m tempted to wallow in self-pity, I think about the surprise that … Continue reading
Identity – A Poem about Deafness by Martyn Brown
For far too long I took the coward’s way The sheep that never strayed From the safety of sameness Anonymous Comforted by shadows Evading detection Making my presence unheard Stubbornly proud To suffer in silence No voice to call my own Confidence ebbing away Buried the truth Less chance of rejection An air of mystery … Continue reading
Win a Free Book: Turn a Deaf Ear
What happens when a woman falls in love with a man who is deaf? They find a way to communicate… through sign language. In Janet Fiore Horger and Linda Fiore Sanders’ novel, Turn a Deaf Ear, a hearing woman and a deaf man capture each other’s love and language. Inspired by a true story, the … Continue reading
Are My Hearing Aids Obvious? A Guest Post by Gael Hannan
The Scene: In a salon, a woman sits down in a chair, removing the towel from her wet hair. She puts her hearing aids back in and looks at herself in the mirror, chatting to the stylist. Tell me honestly, do my hearing aids show? I mean, like a lot? I know I’ve always worn … Continue reading
Lipreading Mom 