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I was born hard, coming breech, forceably turned, forceps used during the long delivery. My poor mother survived and though her doctors told her to never have another child, she ended up having four more. But as a result of that treachurous delivery I was born with about 75% of my hearing destroyed. But somehow, incredibly, no one in my birth family knew this, including my mother, until I was 17 years old. I certainly had no idea I was practically deaf. I thought I was normal and everyone else was off the wall. But due to my differences, it was just assumed I was born bad, would amount to nothing and was treated as such. Fortunately, I had an inner spirit and inner fire that flamed brightly and wouldn't let me die.

I am now a grandmother, albeit a young one, but grandmother nonetheless, and this is the first piece of writing I've ever written concerning my birth and trials as a child growing up not knowing I was deafened, in a family who never heard me. Learning to Lip Read without conscious knowledge of what I was doing. Living in a hearing family within a hearing world. Knowing I didn't belong but not understanding why until I was seventeen years old, nearly an adult. By the time we all knew it really wasn't my "vile" character that made me so weird but rather a physical disabilty neglected by the adults in my life, it was too late to rectify anything.
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