2005-10-11 - 7:20 p.m.
Communication Breakdown
Pop-Pop is deaf and illiterate. He was born in 1937, and I guess back then the possibility still existed to leave school in the 3rd grade and go out to work, which he did. He went deaf about 26 years ago, suddenly. After many tests, no cure.
Back to the present day, he is responsible for bringing the sister’s kids to school. However, if they need something brought to school or need to come home early, there is no way to communicate with him. Never mind when he gets stuck with car problems. My sister has AAA for him, but he hasn’t had too much success getting people to help him. “HELLO, I’m deaf; can you call AAA for me? My car is kaput and I need help! People just walk away mostly, though at least one time someone came to the rescue.
We have been desperately trying to figure out a way to communicate. They were thinking fax machine with codes for school on the kids issue. For instance, the school calls my sister; she sends a fax with a picture of school. Eh. I’m of the opinion, that while Pop-Pop is illiterate, he’s not stupid, and can learn a few words, I’m sure with practice he can handle the technology, and maybe a pager/text with buzz would be better. With some codes, so in case he gets stuck, he can send a message indicating “stuck in Shop-Rite.” Oy. I know Nextel and some partner that my sister uses utilizes some walkie talkie feature. Now, that would be cool, if he could instantly announce that he was stuck in Shop-Rite. Then again? How would he know he was connected? It would be pretty much like after my mother died when he would call my number, wait an appropriate amount of time (during which I would hear ummmmmm, Annnie, I’m coming over). I imagine before my sister would respond, he would walk the 35 blocks like he did last week. SHIT!
Really, I think the best think to do is to teach him a few text messages that he can recall with symbols. Sorta like learning a new language. There seems to be no system that solves the problem of the deaf & illiterate.
Communication Breakdown
