Norm makes time to listen
Kiwi rugby great Norm Hewitt is a man of many dimensions and revealed his softer side during a recent visit to New Plymouth.
Hewitt has long been engaged in the fight against violence towards children, as well as cruelty to animals. Perhaps lesser known is his work with seniors as ambassador for Triton Hearing Clinic, a role sparked from his personal experience of how his elderly parents were treated.
‘‘On a personal level I didn’t realise there were so many of our elders, kaumatua, sitting in homes and all they wanted was some interaction and some fun,’’ Hewitt said. ’’At some point we have forgotten this generation and I’ve sat with people who are over 100 years old. You can sit with these people and they are able to tell you exactly what they were doing when they were little.
‘‘Just listening to their stories and being present in that moment, it’s satisfying for me that personally I have met a whole ‘nother group of people.’’
The former All Black believed this was a generation that is a vulnerable generation.
He recounted a few years back when he organised hearing aids for his mum who was 70 years old and his dad who was 73-years-ofage at that time. They had gone through a process to investigate hearing aids because they were deaf.
‘‘I was getting hoha with him because he was always grumpy or the TV was up loud. We would have to yell and he would go ‘eh?’
‘‘He would be yelling at my kids and getting grumpy with them, so I said, ‘you know what I’m not coming down here anymore until you sort it out’.’’
Unfortunately the experience left his dad feeling embarrassed and adamant he would not go to have his hearing checked again. ’’Dad said they made him feel like a dummy.’’ ‘‘They didn’t treat him like a human being,’’ Hewitt said.
That prompted Hewitt to tell a friend, who suggested their local Triton clinic; a process made easy for his parents who both turned out to be deaf.
‘‘When he heard the birds again he went oh my gosh I’ve missed out. He reckoned he’d been deaf for 20 years.
‘‘Mum and Dad are in love again. We have conversations that we never had in 20 years.
‘‘When we got Mum and Dad from the depths of silence there was a cost, but put that against the value.’’