It’s been a sad time here in Long Beach. Like many communities across California, the city where our office is located has been battling COVID-19, and late last month our mayor, Robert Garcia, announced that his mother had died of the virus at the age of 61. Gabriella O’Donnell was a...
If you’ve been to our office over the past couple of months, you’ve heard the racket. We’re in a modest two-story building with a courtyard in the middle, which is now a construction zone. It’s a bit of a pain, but the reason for the mess is a good one: an elevator is being...
t’s turning into a long, strange summer, isn’t it? Like a lot of you (I suspect), I’m feeling just a bit restless. Sure, I like working from home, and I love my family. But still, this new normal takes some getting used to. There is one silver lining, though. I’m spending a...
Every now and then, I get a sharp reminder of just how important our mission is. That happened this week when I came across a report from the Alzheimer’s Association. We’ve known for some time that hearing loss increases the risk of dementia in older adults. But that’s not the...
I have mixed feelings about the coming weekend. Yes, of course it’s wonderful to celebrate our national holiday — but I worry. This year the most obvious source of anxiety is that we all want to get together with family and friends, and right now it’s not exactly a safe time for...
Did you miss it? Today Governor Newsom ordered everyone in California to wear face masks in public — again. I know, I know, it’s getting tiresome. But as the governor pointed out, Covid-19 is not waning — just the opposite. Cases are increasing, especially in the southern part of...
For most of his life, Jim Soderborg had no hearing at all in his left ear because he had scarring from mastoidectomy operations. Later on, the hearing in his right ear started to go. At the time he was living in the Bay Area, and he got a hearing aid with help from his local Lions Club. Then he...
Before Charlotte Carreon got her hearing aids, her TV was so loud that the whole neighborhood could hear it. Her neighbor across the street told her, “I can hear your TV over here,” and she’d say, “Well good, because I can’t.” The worst thing, Charlotte told us,...
It’s a tough time. Sometimes it’s good to see some inspiration from other lands. This week we came across this song that embodies the history of Australian, told in Australian Sign Language (Auslan). So take a break from all the stressful news and enjoy! Sincerely,
Four years ago, when Elena Sabilla was living in the Philippines, she started to have trouble with her eyes. She went to a doctor, who told her she had glaucoma. “He gave me some eye drops,” she told us, “but it got worse.” Two years ago she moved to California to be closer...
Every now and then, I hear a story about one of our clients that really warms my heart. Carl Kulzer is one of them. Now in his 80s, Carl had suffered with hearing loss for 30 years, but hadn’t been able to afford a hearing aid. When our outreach coordinator, Kerstin Brucki, visited his...
We all need a bit of good news, right? You may remember that in recent years a new tradition has taken root around the post-Thanksgiving craziness: after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, a day was set aside to encourage us to think about sharing with our less fortunate neighbors: Giving Tuesday....