I am 87 years old, in good health, still active & involved. I have had a most wonderful life with a dedicated & encouraging stepmother, a wonderful marriage, a successful career in government service, & two wonderful sons. I was born with normal hearing in 1938 before vaccinations were “a thing”. Suddenly at age 7, my hearing began to fail. I wore hearing aids for the first time at ten, & at eighteen, I could no longer use telephones. There seemed to be no reason — no accidents nor known illnesses — but my stepmother pushed me through speech reading classes, talked with teachers, encouraged me to do all that I could, & finally watched me marry & have a family. My husband encouraged & pushed me as well. A major support system for me — they convinced me to be all that I could be. During all those years, no one was ever able to find out why I lost my hearing. I was tested many times, fitted with new aids, & in general, just pushed along in my life to be successful & happy. “You can do it!” was the motto. In my 20’s & 30’s, as more testing was developed, doctors finally came to the conclusion that either my birth mother or I had measles somewhere along the line. Did she have it while carrying me? Did I have it after birth? My early infancy involved many different caretakers that were never able to say I’d actually had measles. It is an unknown factor. When younger siblings had measles later in my childhood, I never came down with it. That’s one more reason for that belief. I also know there was a measles epidemic in the 60’s that left many children with hearing loss, heart disease, and other major illnesses. It has made me very aware that measles is most likely one of the worse diseases that any child can develop. At age 87, I still speak well, & lip read with skill. My life-long deafness has actually made me a stronger individual. But I’ll always wish there had been childhood vaccinations available to me when I was born.
