Listen! by Frances Itani

Author:Frances Itani [Itani, Frances]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-927499-40-5
Publisher: Grass Roots Press
Published: 2012-07-12T15:24:00+00:00

Chapter Six

The Berries

Jessie worked as a sign language interpreter at a community centre. She looked around the table at Roma, Liz, and Eve. “My mom and dad were born deaf,” she said. “They met at a School for the Deaf in western Canada. Like your mom, they lived in residence. Three years after they finished school, they married and moved east to Ontario.”

Jessie continued: “We lived near Smiths Falls when I was born. I was the first child. I had three brothers and one sister. None of us was born deaf. Even so, American Sign Language was the language we used. But we grew up with two languages in the house, ASL and spoken English. We children used our voices to speak to one another. To our parents, we signed. Most often, we used both at the same time: speech and sign. Even now, my thoughts are in pictures,” Jessie said. “Everything is visual for me. When I speak, I see words in sign language. That probably happens to many hearing children of deaf parents.

“My dad had a job working in a hospital laundry. Sometimes, we wondered what our lives would be like if we were rich. We used to say: ‘I wonder how rich people live?’ Wondering how rich people live became a joke in our family.”

Jessie held up her photo and then passed it around the table. “You’ll see that I am leaning against a truck here,” she said. “What you can’t see clearly is the field of berries behind the truck. Rows and rows of raspberries. My story is about Mrs. Berry. A woman who was very rich.”

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