My grandfather was in a retirement home. Pretty active, we visited him frequently.

Well once Covid hit we couldn’t see him in person, and my family decided to pull him out and care for him at our home. On the zoom call prior to pulling him out he seemed so lost and confused and could barely respond to what we were asking him. I honestly thought he wasn’t going to last the month.

After we brought him home, he had a general family zoom call planned. I gave him my headphones to wear, and suddenly he was chatting and laughing and bantering and his sharp wit was right back to normal. His hearing aids weren’t working properly and he just couldn’t understand what was going on. It’s such a huge barrier for connection and engagement when you can’t hear or understand what’s going on around you. I’m happy to see hearing aid advertising targeting younger people too and trying to remove some stigma surrounding them.