Grandson David and I met in the parking lot of the new restaurant we wanted to try. We got out of our cars and were walking toward the place when I realized I could not hear David with my left ear.
“Oh David!!” I exclaimed. “I’ve lost one of my hearing aids!”
He began to look with me inside my car. His eyesight is much better than mine, and he couldn’t find it. I sternly told myself not to panic. For once, I looked at the bright side and thought one ear was better than none. Common sense said I should check with the company and see how much a replacement would cost. No! Look at home first! There was no way I wanted to drive all the way home to look and decided to make the best of the situation. Maybe I had flicked the aid out when I put my pocketbook over my head.
As we looked near the car, David asked what the hearing aid looked like. I realized he’d never seen mine, because they were always in my ear or resting in the charger. Reaching for my other ear, I discovered there was no hearing aid there! It was highly unusual, but I realized I must have entirely forgotten to put them in before leaving the house. I told that to David and explained that I thought I could hear him with one ear and not the other, simply because one ear was closer to him. What a relief! David was very kind and spoke clearly toward me so that I could hear him. He served as my ears while we ate lunch, picked up a T-shirt for Lise and took my glasses back to the shop for an adjustment.
The first thing I did when I got home was to put in those hearing aids. Oh! My! Can you imagine how long 10 minutes can last when your entire hearing history passes through your memory??? I don’t want to do that again any time soon!
Mehrling Muse 
Good thing you haven’t left them at home when you ventured out alone…!
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I don’t wear them all the time. I can’t understand TV dialogue without them but I can hear across the table. Lucky you didn’t actually lose them and David was there to help.
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How sweet and thoughtful of David. I am glad you knew they were at home and you hadn’t lost them.
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I can imagine the shock of losing an aid you depend on. They are expensive things too. My husband has them but refuses to take them on holiday as he is scared if losing them at some faraway destination. Good practice but he is isolated from conversation in many instances. David sounds like he has loads of empathy, a rarer characteristic these days.
When you told yourself off to not panic and instead look on the bright side, I am reminded of my ‘lucky year’ when one day I discovered I’d lost my wallet somewhere in a shopping centre. That day I cautioned myself not to get upset because it was my so called lucky year so it would be found. And I did find it- on the floor of a shop under a rack of dresses- with everything intact. Amazing. Glad your hearing aids were safe!
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I appreciate how you stay calm and just deal with things. That is a useful quality!
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Glad it all turned out well in the long run!
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Well, that’s good news they weren’t actually lost – whew! I remember our neighbor across the street got hearing aids years ago and his wife was so happy because she always had to shout at him and he played the TV and stereo very loud. But he put them in at the hearing aid store, got home and kept them in the drawer until the day he died. He said there was an echo, everything was too loud and he was miserable wearing them.
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