Meet Lindy.

photo by: Patrick Falaniko

Hello! My name is Lindy. I was born in the seaside town of Great Yarmouth and I still enjoy going to the beach and the circus as much now as I did as a child. I moved to London in my late teens and having worked there for a year I then trained as a teacher, specialising in the nursery/infant age range. I have always enjoyed working with children, young people and their families. My first job was in Berkshire, then back to London. Next Rome, then Suffolk, then Norfolk, back to Suffolk and finally Norfolk again! I now live in a Norfolk village which is  about a 45 minute drive from where I was born! I still love to travel.

Growing Up

As a child I found hearing difficult. I had lots of what used to be referred to as  ‘catarrh’ and I had swollen adenoids. I also had a very painful abscess that burst inside my ear when I was eight making a dreadful mess of the clean white sheets on the bed. I found it difficult to hear at school. I think I was sometimes considered slow because it took longer for me to hear/register what someone was saying to me. I also wore glasses with a patch over one eye so I  couldn’t read the blackboard. My mum had a meeting with my teacher, following a class test one year when I was at Primary school. My  mum said “The teacher said you know more than you let on. You must put your hand up so that she knows you know something!” No-one ever considered that I didn’t hear or took longer to process things. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand, I couldn’t hear. (Or read the board!)

[Photographer: Zuzia Zawada, Earrings: @deafmetal]

Hearing Aids

Having got through school, higher education, teaching and personal life I began to find hearing more and more difficult. My daughter said ‘Mum, that television is so loud!” when she came to see me. I knew I was struggling to hear conversations, tannoys were impossible and I worried about keeping up in group situations. After retiring from teaching in my 50s and having done a Theatre Skills course, I was applying for all sorts of roles in film, stage and studios! I loved meeting and working with new creatives  and didn’t want this to stop. I went to my GP and said I thought I needed my ears syringed. He did a hearing test and said “You need hearing aids”. When I was tested and fitted for my hearing aids I put them straight in and have worn them ever since. (Not the same pair!) The audiologist said wearing them would help to preserve the hearing I had so I definitely wanted to hold onto that! I was also told that one ear was worse than the other as I had burst an eardrum in one and a membrane had grown over it, making hearing difficult. I had a hearing problem from childhood as well as hearing loss associated with age. The type of hearing loss I had meant messages didn’t get to the brain quickly. It was a difficulty with clarity not volume!  I could have cried with relief. It all made sense, all these years later. [photo by: Halo, studio: Tank Space]

Communication is Key

I love people and socialising but it is one of the things that can be difficult for deaf/hard of hearing people. I do not want to be cut off from people. I attend lip-reading classes every term. When I first started the teacher said I had been lip reading for a long time. I would say to anyone reading this, please, make sure your lips are not covered by your hands, speak clearly in your usual voice, make sure you are not in front of a window (you will be a silhouette!) and do not shout in someones ear (it hurts!) If the deaf/hard of hearing person doesn’t get it, please don’t say “It doesn’t matter”. It matters to us. Try rephrasing it or writing it down. 

[photo by: Goddess Studio]

I love my hearing aids! They help me to hear. I do not like the stigma against being deaf/hard of hearing. Please, if you are finding it difficult to hear, go and get a hearing test. They are free. If you are prescribed hearing aids, please wear them. I often wear jewellery that is made specifically for hearing aids. Rather than hide our hearing aids, let’s celebrate them! Let’s adorn them with hearing aid earrings, let’s tell people we wear them. Let’s be proud to be who we are, with hearing aids! Since getting hearing aids I have become more confident in talking about being hard of hearing, I have joined lip-reading classes, I have done ballet lessons online with the camera on! I have worn earrings for hearing aids. I have attended burlesque classes in person, shared photos of my hearing aids on social media and heard the birds SING! There is so much joy to be had in everyday sounds you didn’t think you’d missed until they came back.

[photo by: John Walsh]

Thank you for reading this. I wish you all the best in your hearing aid journey or in supporting those who wear them. I am proudly represented by an amazing agency, Zebedee Talent, who campaign for inclusion in the media. I have a modeling Instagram @lindylou.zbd as well as my original insta @lindyloulou.