Growing up Deaf - Part 12

Going to School - Grades 10-12

Then with tenth grade, my parents transferred me to a small Christian school. This showed that they were aware of the problems I had in the School From Hell. With this school, everyone treated each other better. I had one instructor that went to the hospital for a heart valve replacement and was out for a couple months. The principal was also the teacher in a couple classes. The interesting thing was finding that he lived right up the road from me. I'm pretty much thankful I went. How much worse would the harassment have been had I gone with the others from the School From Hell to a high school they were going to attend as well?

Then we moved to Illinois, and the last two years of high school had some interesting times every so often. I had this history class where the teacher had this habit of walking around the room. I was taking notes on my own, and someone was getting theirs copied at the end of class, so that worked. I was just about on swivels trying to follow the teacher. I had gotten this new watch earlier, and was trying to tame it. Just when I thought I had the alarm off, it would go off. It went off twice in the history class. "If that thing goes off again, you go off too." I finally got the danged thing quit going off. I still have that watch today.

One interesting thing is that I lived close to the school, and could easily run home for lunch and study hall.

The graduation ceremony filled the entire high school gym. Two other deaf girls were in my class as well.

All those moves we had were due to my dad's being a social worker with the children's homes. That meant I wasn't able to make and keep friends for long. He was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma before Christmas 1989, and we all had a wonderful Christmas and final birthday in March 1990 before he passed away in May 1990. It was painful enough watching him go downhill that fast despite medical treatment. He lost his hair, became weak at times, mom had to help him with some things, he couldn't sleep in bed but was able to do so in a recliner, and in his last days, he was on a painkiller drug. Where he worked as executive director at the childrens home, they flew the flag at half-staff and installed a plaque on a little brick wall around the flagpole.

Next - High School part 2

Update: That watch mentioned above I finally retired after 28 years. It still works but it was getting more difficult to open the back to replace the battery.