Hi folks, from London UK (again)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

Hi, folks, it's me again😄

Many thanks for dropping by. No poem for you today, but I'm working on one so it should be ready for posting here tomorrow or over the weekend. To be honest, I was stuck for a theme until a nasty memory block caused me to forget how to log on to my computer. Although years of hormone therapy for my prostate cancer messes with my thought processes, this is something I do every day and it left me all but demented until I remembered. I sent a frantic SOS to mind-body-spirit, pleading for a clue. Suddenly my thought processes cleared like an early morning mist, not only recalling my log-on, but suggesting a theme for a poem... addressing mind-body-spirit (yes, again!) and a title along the lines of 'SOS'  a provisional title for now, but I may yet keep it.😉

I am often asked how I cope with memory loss as I grow old, especially as I live alone; it may be predominantly associated with dementia/ Alzheimer sufferers but, believe me, it can happen to anyone. Me, I got into the habit even in my early 60's of writing notes to myself and leaving them on the kitchen table to remind me of any shopping I needed to buy or tasks I needed to set myself the next day... before I forgot. Needless to say, these notes are always left on the kitchen table so I don't forget where I put the darn things. Not an original idea, I agree, but it works well for me, so I guess it is part of my life for keeps now.😉 

Another reader, G L has asked me to say something more about my being partially deaf as he or she thinks they may have a similar problem. As regular readers will know, I have suffered with perceptive deafness since I contracted measles at the tender age of 4 years. There was no vaccination against measles available in those days, so I do urge parents to have their children vaccinated as hearing loss has made my life considerably harder than it might have been otherwise, especially during my long-ago schooldays.

I was 21 years old before my hearing loss was diagnosed and I started wearing hearing aids. A few years later I was confirmed as having perceptive deafness and the NHS here obtained special hearing aids  for me, made in Germany with perceptive deafness sufferers in mind. 

So, why did no one, including yours truly, pick up on the fact that I was partially deaf? Well, perceptive deafness is not so easily perceived because it is a 'pitch' deafness; how much I hear, for example, depends largely on the pitch of a person's voice and local acoustics as well as how clearly they speak. ( A lot of people mumble without realising it and heavy accents can be a problem too.) So, in school, I might hear the same teacher easily in one classroom but with difficulty in another because of different acoustics.  Similarly, at home, I would hear a family member ok in one room, but not in another, especially if there was also background noise from a TV or radio. My Chemistry teacher, a lovely guy, was Polish so I really struggled with his accent.

No one understood my hearing problem for years, many still don't even when I explain it to them whenever there is a misunderstanding due to my having heard incorrectly. Time and again, it would cause problems at home, especially with my father who was always accusing me of not listening to a word he said. At school, too, I was always being reprimanded for giving the wrong answer to a question because I hadn't been paying attention when, in fact, I hadn't heard the question correctly. I often used to sit at the back of classes to avoid being asked questions which meant, of course, that I would catch even less of what was being taught during the lesson!😉

Mind you, my schooldays were all the worse for my being selected by certain education powers-that-be to go to a Technical School when I have always been the least technically-minded person I know.😉

Please bear in mind that it is not only known deaf people who have a hearing problem; many, many others are partially deaf without realising it, so don't be too quick to take offence if the response you get to a question of comment isn't quite along the lines you expected. It may be that you simply need to repeat what you said, perhaps more clearly, not that the other person hasn't been paying attention or is being deliberately rude.  

Being deaf or partially deaf is, sadly, a fact of life for some of us; we don't choose it, if anything, it chooses us... as is the case with so many facts of life to which some people with good hearing do choose to turn a blind eye... or deaf ear.  

Back with a poem soon, folks, hopefully tomorrow if my day improves and inspiration doesn't desert me.😉

Take care, stay safe and do your best to nurture a positive-thinking mindset... whatever life throws at you.

Hugs,

Roger

PS I am delighted to hear that BSL (British Sign Language) is to be included among subjects taught in UK schools. Better late than never...and yes, I do feel guilty for not being familiar with it myself, but there was never a opportunity to learn it.