Wednesday, June 22, 2011

LVW Col: How The Starkey Mission Changed Me

I'm not sure why, but as I head to the end of my tenure as a Las Vegas Weekly columnist, I'm getting more and more personal and emotional in my writing. I hope y'all don't mind. Here's this week's piece. -sf

An afternoon with the Starkey Hearing Foundation
changed (my) life


By STEVE FRIESS

Image

Ordinarily, I’d be angling for an interview with the luminaries. Soap goddess Susan Lucci stood next to me, preternaturally cheerful The View co-host Sherri Shepherd was nearby and Marlee Matlin, the deaf Oscar winner, had just walked in.

Yet at that moment the only person who fascinated me was 5-year-old Toby Grizzle and those all-important, teary-eyed supporting cast members known as his parents. He’s not a star, although he was encircled by reporters and cameras while a tall, meaty fellow with a bowl of slicked-back hair as white as his lab coat altered his future.

Toby and I have quite a lot in common. He’s a big-cheeked preschooler with significant, unexplained hearing loss, and so was I. He’s got traumatized folks facing the obscene cost of equipment that will help their son, and so did I. He yearns to be normal, to not constantly feel he’s disappointing his parents, teachers and peers. So did I.

See the rest at LasVegasWeekly.Com

1 comments:

detroit1051 said...

I don't mind your getting more emotional in your writing because I became emotional reading your beautiful story about Toby Grizzle and all the others at the Starkey Hearing Foundation event.

Why aren't the costs covered by major health insurance policies? That seems so wrong.

You're going to be sorely missed during your Fellowship.