This takes guts — and patience. We could all use a little inspiration these days. That’s why I wanted to share an amazing story I ran across this week. At 13, Dan Mancina was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic disease that leads to vision loss. He started losing...
Melva Snyder went through five sets of hearing aids before she finally got the right ones. That meant more than 10 years of frustration. She still had to ask people to repeat themselves. When she was driving, she couldn’t hear if her blinker was on. If she was outside the house,...
When it comes to the LSH mission, Dave Hubbard knows what he’s talking about. A longtime Lion and an LSH advocate, Dave suffers from hearing loss, and he told us he was in denial for a long time before he did something about it. “I denied it for about 17 years,” he says....
These are tough times for all of us, and and we all have our challenges. My heart goes out particularly to parents of school children — I honestly don’t know how they are coping. But from where I sit, there’s another group I’m really concerned about: the deaf and hard of...
This pandemic has been a disaster for so many businesses — but some are actually thriving. In that second group, count the manufacturers of blue light-blocking glasses. Before the pandemic, many of us were already spending way too much time in front of screens — but now...
Let’s face it: we’re pretty lucky here in California, especially near the coast. When we complain about the weather, some of my friends who live in the snowbound Middle West or the steamy-humid South start shaking their heads. They may have a point. I know at least one person who lost...
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...