My old Nan maintained that people were kind to the blind, but not to the deaf. She said observers could see the white stick or the guide dog and register the sightless gaze, and the uncertainty with which the blind negotiate the hazardous street.
But deafness, she considered, is a hidden affliction. 'Just imagine the horror of a completely silent world,' she said with a shudder.
Degrees of hearing loss occur for various reasons, some obvious, some not. My grandfather, who served in the Australian artillery during the First World War, became cripplingly deaf: no protection was provided, and the gunners simply had to cope with the damaging noise of bombardment.
Grandfather's was an injury-related deafness, which in today's Australia affects 1.5 per cent of the population and 12 times as many men as women. When the effects of ageing add to such deafness, 8 per cent of the population between the ages of 65 and 74 is affected. Over all, 11 per cent of Australians suffer from either partial or complete deafness.
Genetics play their inexorable part. My mother wore hearing aids. Now my brother and I do. There may be a link between childbirth and deafness, so some obstetricians recommend vulnerable women bear only two children. Diseases and infections can also be responsible: middle-ear infections are notorious, and so are tumours.
Traumata sustained in accidents are another source of lasting damage, as is exposure to loud noise. My sons, thank goodness, have no experience of bombardments, but they will persist in going to nightclubs and exposing their genetically susceptible ears to hours of over-amplified music.
I live in a Greek village, but do not go to Easter services because of the blast of double-bungers, let off in order to drive the demons away. Alas, one Easter Day, I went walking, and two little boys lit double-bungers as I passed. Miraculously, my hearing loss has not deteriorated, and my ear-drums are quite intact, but I now have tinnitus, which makes me feel as if I am sitting inside a continuously humming refrigerator.
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Those who suffer from creeping deafness may be slow to realise it, and to accept it, for communication is of such vital importance to work, social situations and personal relationships. I long refused to accept my own hearing loss, upbraiding myself for lack of concentration, and telling myself good hearing was a matter of willpower.
Hearing loss is a blow to self-esteem. It leads