16/07/2025
I'm no poet or content creator, but like to write random pieces about things that mean a lot to me.
This is a piece about the journey I went on when my son, and then my daughter were diagnosed with my hearing loss.
The shift from shame to advocate, was powerful and tangible. As I learnt about them, and for them, I learnt so much more about myself.
Please be gentle, as I said, l'm no content creator but this piece means so much to me.
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Inheritance
I held him close, just hours old,
Counted fingers, breathed in gold.
The newborn test said he’s just fine
No echo of this loss of mine.
Relief came fast, a quiet cheer:
He’s safe. He hears. He won’t know fear.
I wrapped that thought around my chest,
And let my heart believe the rest.
He spoke so early, words like streams,
He met the world with voice and dreams.
We never guessed what lay beneath,
No signs, no stumbles, no unease.
And then one day, routine, benign,
A check, a box, a standard line.
But there it was: the silent truth.
He carried what I gave in youth.
The floor gave out beneath my pride,
Shame rushing in like rising tide.
From me, I thought, this silent thread,
This gene I wished was gone instead.
I’d hidden mine with practiced grace,
Read lips, guessed laughs, kept pace.
But buried deep, beneath my skin,
Was grief I never let begin.
How could I teach him not to hide,
When I still wore my shame inside?
How could I help him rise above,
If I had never learned self-love?
And then she came, my daughter bright,
Another child of sound and light.
Her path would echo just the same,
This story told in our shared name.
But something shifted in my chest,
A quiet fire, a fierce unrest.
I could not let them feel alone
In silence I had called my own.
No more hiding, no more shame,
I spoke our truth and signed our name.
I learned to see my deafness whole,
A piece, not burden, of my soul.
I watched them grow; so wild, so free,
Not broken, but just differently.
And in their joy, I saw the key
The one that turned and unlocked me.
So now I stand with open hands,
A mother who at last understands
That love runs deeper than the sound,
And pride grows best in solid ground.
No longer hiding, shamed or small,
I stand here now, ears and all.
For in their strength, I found my part;
To advocate, from my heart.
