1967

Hanna Marie Swensen had grown into a lovely young lady, slender with beautiful silky brown hair and big brown expressive eyes. She had a naturally sweet personality, had many friends, hearing and non-hearing alike, and was quite social. She had her mother’s sense of style and was always dressed in the best clothes. Even so, at the beginning of her senior year, when she wrote to her parents and told them about a wonderful young man she had met, it had come as somewhat of a surprise. Beatrice knew she had made a lot of friends, but she had never before mentioned a special boy. And, of course, Beatrice was excited. But at this point, she didn’t know if the young man was a deaf boy or not…or anything else really.

My Darling,

So happy to hear you are doing so well and still enjoying college life. Your friend Michael sounds like a nice person. Not to be a prying mother, but is he a hearing person?

Not that it matters, just wondering. If you like, your father and I would be happy to have him come and visit sometime. Anyhow, sweetie, remember your mother and daddy love you and miss you so much.

Mother

Hanna Marie’s father would have worded the letter somewhat differently. He would have said, “Bring this clown home, and let me get a good look at him.” Luckily, Beatrice was the one who wrote the letters.

But men are different than women on the subject of their daughters. When Linda Warren had started dating boys, Macky hadn’t liked any of them. As he told Norma, “No matter how polite they may seem, I was a boy myself, and I know what the little bastards are up to.”