Hearing aid contest winners receive new devices - Dothan Eagle

One lost her hearing due to an inner ear disorder; another had a history of hearing loss in her family; and another could only attribute the loss to age and a lifetime of loud noises.

Whatever the cause, each of the six winners of an annual hearing aid contest had struggled with their hearing loss for years.

From more than 50 essays received by mail and email, the six Wiregrass residents chosen to receive free devices were Angie McKinney, Ross Kelley, Julia Eldridge, Glenn Anderson, James Bedsole, and Rita Langford. The hearing aid essay contest has been held for nearly 20 years by Physicians Hearing Center and the Dothan Eagle.

‘Already a winner’Angie McKinney is a house parent at Chrysalis Home for Girls and was nominated by several of the girls who reside in the group home.

“I love ’em and I guess they love me, too,” McKinney said.

Hearing loss runs in McKinney’s family. Her father wears hearing aids. She has a sister and a brother who wear them. McKinney was young — about 17 or 18 — when she got her first hearing device. McKinney’s initial experience didn’t go well. Ironically, she was hearing too much with her analog device.

“I didn’t wear hearing aids for a long time because I just couldn’t handle how much I could hear,” McKinney, 55, said. “When you’re not used to all that hearing and all of a sudden you can hear, and you hear the birds chirping and you hear the wind blowing. You just don’t realize what you hear. The old hearing aids before they came out with digital were just too much.”

McKinney learned to read lips over time. She did eventually get a set of digital hearing aids, but her current devices are old and don’t work well — something the girls at Chrysalis had noticed. She didn’t know they were nominating her until she got the call to schedule an evaluation.

“This is wonderful,” McKinney said. “I was already a winner in my eyes because the girls thought enough of me to nominate me.”

‘R’ is for rightAs Ross Kelley left his hearing aid fitting at Physicians Hearing Center earlier this week, audiologist Julie Ann Rikard and his mother, Lynn Adkison, did a quick lesson on his new hearing aids: “L” is for left and “R” is for right. “R” is also for Ross, the 35-year-old Kelley said.

Before Kelley and his mother got on the elevator to leave, he ran back into the medical office and gave Rikard a big hug.

“He’s a very, very loving person,” Adkison said of her special-needs son. “There’s not a mean bone in him.”

Born with hip dysplasia, Kelley spent the first two years of his life in a body cast that would be changed out as he grew. He’s also been blind in one eye since birth. Kelley spends his days at the Wiregrass Rehabilitation Center’s adult day care in Enterprise. He’s smart on a computer and loves playing video games.

He doesn’t always speak up when something is wrong — such as when he had appendicitis — so Adkison said the hearing loss could have been developing long before it became noticeable to others.

“We had started noticing that he was getting gradually and gradually where he didn’t pay attention to us when we said something to him or if he had his back turned to us,” Adkison said. “If he was behind us, he wouldn’t respond sometimes. … He was turning his TV louder and louder, and he was turning his games louder and louder where nobody else in the house could enjoy anything.”

‘I knew it was different’In 2003, Rita Langford woke up one morning and couldn’t hear.

“I was actually sick at the time and I went to the doctor and they told me that it was from being sick; it was just a cold and that once I got over the cold, my hearing would get better,” the 51-year-old Opp resident said. “But I knew it was different. I could see people talking but I couldn’t hear them; I didn’t have a clue what they said.”

The cold went away, but her hearing didn’t get better. Langford was diagnosed with Meniere’s disease, an inner ear disorder that can cause a variety of symptoms such as vertigo and hearing loss. Langford experiences “attacks” of Meniere’s, and each attack damages her hearing even more.

Langford works in health care. She currently works for a cardiologist doing ultrasounds of hearts. Because of her work, it’s important for her to be able to understand both the other medical staff and patients. She has tried hearing aids, but didn’t have a good experience with her first set. She waited years before getting another pair.

“At that point my hearing loss was affecting my job, so I really didn’t have a choice,” she said.

Glenn Anderson began noticing he had some hearing loss about 10 to 12 years ago.

“It just kept getting worse,” Anderson said. “Finally, my oldest foster son bought me some (hearing aids) and they helped a whole bunch.”

Described as a hard worker and dedicated family man in an essay written by his daughter-in-law, Anderson and his wife, Ann, raised two foster sons and later adopted a son and daughter. The Cowarts resident owned a building supply business, which he sold in the 1990s.

The set of hearing aids purchased by his foster son eventually became outdated and worn out. Now 80, Anderson can’t really point to any one thing that could have caused his hearing loss — just living life.

“Probably too much target practice without earmuffs,” he joked.

Like Anderson, 80-year-old James Bedsole has been a hard worker all his life. A farmer, he still lives on the same Geneva County farm where he was born and raised. A lifetime of noise from tractors and heavy equipment could have led to his hearing loss, but he can’t say for sure.

Bedsole’s wife, Linda, wrote in her essay nominating him that his hearing had worsened considerably in the past year. The hearing loss was to the point that James Bedsole had considered stepping down as a Sunday school teacher and deacon at Malvern Baptist Church. Normal conversations had become a challenge because he wouldn’t hear much of what was said.

“It’s been gradual over the years for four or five years — maybe longer,” Bedsole said. “My wife and my children have been seeing it and it’s just gradually gotten worse.”

He said he’s looking forward to having conversations with his family.

“Being able to hear my wife and my children and my grandchildren without them having to holler at me,” Bedsole said.

The lawn fairyAt 87, Julia Eldridge leads an active life, going to church and helping others.

“She can work circles around all of us,” granddaughter Mandy Collins said.

In the Burns Church community near Malvern in Geneva County, Eldridge is actually known for her love of cutting grass — anybody’s grass.

“They call her the lawn-cutting fairy,” Collins said. “She’ll just go cut if she sees somebody’s grass — and it’s usually someone who is shut-in or elderly. She loves to cut grass.”

Eldridge has had severe ear infections throughout her life, and as she has gotten older, her hearing has worsened. When her late husband developed Alzheimer’s disease several years ago, the family pitched in to buy her a set of hearing aids so she could hear him. Eventually one quit working, and the other was like hearing through a busted speaker.

Eldridge has been without hearing aids for about four years now, Collins said.

During her fitting earlier this week, Eldridge said sounds through the new devices were a little loud — a common experience for those getting hearing aids.

“I’ve got to learn to speak softer,” Eldridge said.