Sweet Nothing In My Ear

Last night my sister's Caroline and Johanne and I all watched this movie called "Sweet Nothing In My Ear" with Marlee Maitlin and Jeff Daniels. The movie was about a deaf woman and a hearing man who have a hearing child who slowly over time becomes deaf.

The hearing father wants to put in a cochlear implant while the deaf mother rejects the idea.

This movie hit home for us due to the fact that JoJo and I grew up with a Hard of Hearing sister, so it kind of touched us a little differently than it would any average Joe out there.

I told them that if I had a deaf child that I would want him/her to have the cochlear implant.

My sisters think I am wrong.

My feelings are simply this..it would be as if my child were born without a hand, or a leg, or the ability to breath without the help from a machine... I would do whatever I had to do in order to solve their problems. I believe that not being able to hear is not "Normal" as some people put it. You have ears and they are supposed to work. When they don't you fix them.

I know that there are people out there who think it is cruel to put in a cochlear implant but what about those that are born as little people? They often undergo surgery to make themselves taller. Painful? Yes. Cruel? No. Its a persons choice. A families choice.

I don't know what it would have been like to have a hearing big sister. She has always worn hearing aids and used sign language. But I believe that she was lucky because she had the best of both worlds. She speaks like a hearing person but also has the skills to communicate as a deaf person. I wonder if her life and ours would be different if she was able to hear. I wonder if she thinks about that too. Would our family ever have left New York? I don't know if cochlear implants were even available when she was little, would my parents have chosen to give her one?