My old friend, "Jello,"..the deaf gal in the wheelchair, has passed her "manual skills" driving test!! I heard about it through the "grape-vine!" She can't hear,...can't walk,..(From what gossip I've seen! My best gossip comes via hand-talk,..please remember that!!")...has lost some of her memories from her stroke???..(not sure on this one!!)...and now has mobility, which depends on a wheelchair and van!! I hope to see her in church on Sunday and ask her about the "stroke" thingie!

Jello awes me!! A deaf parapalegic, who can't remember!

To some, that would sound like a source of great amusement! Perhaps even writing about her here will make her the source of some comedy "routines" to be repeated for the edification of folks, who will never understand what her life has been like! To me, she is a great source of what can be done with oneself under the harshest of circumstances!

Being deaf,..she had little or no access as a child to any sort of language till she was fitted with a hearing aid. In our age group, that would have meant that she could have spent her first three or four years totally without language at all!! Then,..she would have been fitted with a hearing aide and taught how to speak! This would have been followed by an education period of learning to read and write and speak,..talents which most folks just take for granted. She wound up with an MA in social work and years of working successfully in action for one of the largest social services units in that city!!

Somewhere along the years,..she would have learned some "sign language" and would have been "set free" as I have seen the expression used among deaf friends. In another time and place, I would have tried to explain what I meant by "set free," but not here and not now!!

What is making me very happy right now is the fact that "Jello" can drive again!! That is freedom in itself!! She and her husband, who is totally deaf,..have probably overcome obstacles in their lifetimes which would be beyond the belief of most folks.

Heh! "Jello,..like "Ro," the gal in the wheelchair with whom I have been working for the past two years,..is married to her second husband!! Both of these women were as able as anyone else in that "dept!!" And both had at least two or three healthy children, who grew up into some seriously accomplished adults!!

I wonder if "Jello" has had the problem that "Ro" had with folks assuming that just because she was in a wheel chair that she was mentally "slow!" I don't know and the next time I am at "Deaf church,"..I will ask her!!