Homebound But Willing to Help
For Linda Smith, life often feels like being alone on an island.
“I don’t fit in with the hearing, and I don’t fit in with the Deaf,” she said.
Linda has been on quite a journey over the years and is mostly homebound.
“I got pneumonia when I was around 35 years old and ended up on a ventilator,” she recalled. “After the tube was removed, I had vocal cord damage and airway collapse. I ended up with a trach and have had that now for 23 years.”
Nevertheless, she persists.
“I get up each day and try to do the best I can in the moment,” she said with a determined smile.
One lifeline for her these past couple of years has been our online ASL classes.
“If they were only offered in person, I wouldn’t have been able to take them at all, so I am thankful for that,” she said.
Linda started taking ASL classes after she lost her voice as a result of scar-tissue build-up. Her first class was in October 2021. It was love at first sign.
“To begin with, it makes life less scary,” she said. “I do have a way to communicate. It has made it so I can communicate with medical personnel. That originally was my goal, to be good enough to sign to an interpreter so that I can communicate my medical needs. But learning ASL has opened up a whole new world of Deaf culture events. I have connected with so many people, some from class, some from Deaf coffee chat or workshops. Just this week I was signing with a woman from Hawaii.”
Linda added that she appreciates that ASL is its own language, a beautiful language that opens up more of the world. And she really appreciates D&HHS instructor Nancy Piersma.
“Because she is Deaf, she can teach us real-life experiences and culture,” she noted. “She showed us that little things in ASL matter. Facial expressions, for example. A hearing or speaking person can express things by the inflection in their voice, while a person using ASL needs to express with facial expressions. I think it is fascinating.”
And because of our classes, Linda now has a new appreciation for the Deaf and some of the challenges that often need to be overcome. In fact, as she continues with our classes, she also plans to help those who can’t speak find access to sign language and other accessibility tools.
Homebound, but willing to help!