Page 64 - Senior Link Magazine Spring 2023 - Online Magazine

Exceptional

SENIORS

Milton Wright
Music to myEars

By Gayle Willson

s the family gathers, it sometimes follows that to sing and play
one person seems isolated or not responsive the guitar and,
Ato the conversation. Often, we really notice since retirement,
this during the holidays, and the person in isolation compose. After Milton adapted to hearing aids, he
wishes they would have taken the time to get that can now write his own music and enjoys spending
hearing screening. January is a GREAT time to his Thursday afternoons with friends just to “play the
schedule a screening, to make sure you are not the old acoustic rock songs.” They like Crosby, Stills and
person in isolation at the next family gathering. Many Nash, Credence Clearwater Revival, and the Beatles.
times, we cannot decipher the cause of a hearing loss; A favorite is “I’ll Follow the Sun” by the Beatles. The
it may be due to heredity or environment as a young music he has been writing allows him to use and enjoy
person. What is important is that you are evaluated, all the harmonics of the keyboard, and his faith has
and correction is applied before more loss of decibels inspired the lyrics to his own music.
and discrimination occurs.

We have patients in our clinic who recognize they
are beginning to become isolated and are missing
out on conversations. Very often, it is their families
who notice the need for repeated statements or
better explanations. Milton Wright is one of those
who realized he was missing out on conversations;
he also remembered that he had exposed his ears to
LOUD music as a teen and young adult. Milton also
helped his mother when she wore hearing aids, so his
genetics might also have played a role in his hearing
loss. He came to us in 2010 for that first baseline
evaluation and began to wear hearing aids. His
love of music, he realized, had also been hampered
because he was struggling to hear both high and low
frequencies. Hearing aids, programmed accurately
to his unique hearing loss, gave him back the ability
to enjoy his beloved music by enabling him to hear
those sounds he was missing.

Milton is a retired school counselor for elementary
children whose life now revolves around his wife
and their two children, Andrew and Amy. Milton
and Juanita have been married since 1981. He is
again able to enjoy music on many levels. He loves

64 Lubbock Senior Link