HARD OF HEARING (19 april 2004)
My mother had many talents. But one thing she was not very good at was sewing. She did, however, know a woman who was.
From time to time this woman came to our home to do all kind of sewing work for the family. She used to work in the central hall of our home, while threads of yarn and pieces of cloth accumulated on the floor around her.
The lady did not only have a great speed at sewing, her speed of talking was also quite amazing.
Her husband, however, was not overfond of her continuous talk. In the beginning he pretended not to hear her. Later he became really deaf.
This is not the only example I know of someone with a talkative partner who became deaf. I have seen the same phenomenon with a close relative, who had a wife who was also quite comunicative. The man was as good as deaf at the end of his life.
Since I suspected there was a pattern, I started asking around. My first impression is that my theory is right: men with garrulous wives who shut themselves off from their partners' talk eventually tend to get deaf.
One question remains: would female partners of talkative men also become deaf? Or is this situation so exceptional that it borders on the impossible?
