Hear ye, a tale of good people

After years of exposing my ears to airplane and Jeep tire noise, I finally had to stop the denial and recognize that I was having a lot of difficulty hearing conversations. My friends and associates probably already recognized this.

At age 75 my first conversation about a hearing aid was at a hunting expo last February. I found a booth selling a noise canceling hearing aids that I thought was an interesting concept. The young man at the booth, Darrin, would not discuss price until I had a hearing evaluation to determine what type of hearing aid I needed. I picked up his literature and filed it away at home.

Throughout the spring and summer of 2019, I conclude I was missing discussions in meetings and on a one-to-one-basis, abusing the aviators’ phrase “say again”. I got out my hearing aid file and called Darrin for an evaluation appointment. He concluded I need the 16-channel hearing aid.

When my wife and I were quoted the price of $4,000. Our expression was wow, we can’t afford that. My wife and I live on Social Security and whatever I can earn giving a few flight lessons and selling magazine articles that I write. We Left discouraged and discussing that we had hoped the hearing aids would be around $1,000 to $1,200 because that is about what we could afford.

The evening after our hearing aid discussion with Darrin I received a text message to call him. Darrin told me they were a family business and he had discussed our situation with others in his family and they would sell me the $4,000, 16-channel noise cancelling hearing aid for $1,500. They would just list it in their business as a demonstrator. We accepted the offer and scheduled an appointment to have a mold taken for a customized hearing aid fit.

When Janice and I went back for the fitting of the hearing aids, Darrin commented that he decided to discuss the lower price with his family because of Janice’s eyes. When Janice asked what that meant, Darrin explained that he could see the love she had for her husband and the hurt that she was experiencing when we could not afford the hearing aids for him. This turns out to be a wonderful story of good people and another blessing in our lives to be recognized. We are very thankful for Darrin and his family. We also recognize where blessings like this come from.