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My life before the cochlear implant was silent.
I was isolated from the world.
I could not hear peoples' voices,
the door bell ringing, the phone, my own voice.
I was isolated and lonely.
Having a hearing loss
is like being in a foreign country when people speak to you;
it is like everybody is speaking a language that isn't your own.
Now, with the implant,
I feel I'm in my own country again, integrated.
Now, my life with the cochlear implant means integration into society.
I can listen to music,
I can listen to the phone,
to people's voices, I can get to work
I can do a lot of things that I could not do before.
Art has become a part of my life.
Since I was a child, I always enjoyed drawing, painting.
It's something that I couldn't do without,
and it soon became my best friend.
Thereafter, I turned it into a job,
and grabbing a brush and some paint
it is something that provides me great pleasure.
Art for Olivia is a substantial part of her life.
I knew her as an artist
and it is also one of the reasons why I fell in love with her.
Olivia is able to concentrate on painting for hours,
she dedicates herself with an obsession for colour.
In front of a painting, she gets dirty from the paint
and this single image is for me one of the reasons why I fell in love with her.
The painting and her become a single artistic event for itself.
Nowadays I am able to teach painting classes
because I can hear my students' voices.
I can hear when they are calling me, the questions they are asking me,
and this has opened me up to new possibilities in my profession.
Music is something that cheers me up completely.
When I am teaching painting classes
for three hours with my students,
music becomes a part of the creations that we are making.
As soon as the music is turned off, I feel empty.
Music is with me while I'm working;
It is with me in my paintings,
always and every day.
When I first met Olivia I knew that she had a hearing loss
and it was all about writing notes,
trying to transmit our ideas
and our way of communication was only writing,
and it was extremely difficult.
But it was the way we had;
it was the way to do it that we wanted.
First off, a cochlear implant has improved our communication.
And I consider that communication to be an essential part of marriage.
Before the cochlear implantation, we needed to write notes,
we needed to look at each other in the face.
We could not talk on the phone,
we could only write messages.
We communicate
through different ways of communication.
It was all about sensitivity,
about accepting a new way of communication,
and her decision to get a cochlear implant
made me fall in love with her all over again.
I love sharing many activities with my husband.
I love spending time with him at home, walking outdoors,
sharing time with the family, drinking some "Mate", talking about everything,
I love that he tells me about his things, and I talk to him about my feelings.
And first of all I love listening to his voice.
My favourite sounds are the sounds of nature.
The birds, the water flowing,
the natural sounds and the music.
To me they mean connection to life.
I would definitely recommend to a person with a hearing loss to get a cochlear implant,
because perceiving sound helps to integrate you back to life again,
into the world.