It's quite a big thing to take on you know, we're trying to actually get better at it and go further with it, but trying new things at any age, particularly at this age can be hard. At this age life has it’s mundanities and to change that day-to-day mundaneness shall we say, it's a really good thing. I think it's really healthy.
It's quite a big thing to take on you know, we're trying to actually get better at it and go further with it, but trying new things at any age, particularly at this age can be hard. At this age life has it’s mundanities and to change that day-to-day mundaneness shall we say, it's a really good thing. I think it's really healthy.
Sue
Hughenden Gardens Village
Meet Sue!
Resident Sue, 72, shares her personal journey with filming the documentary ‘Rose Ayling Ellis: Old Hands New Tricks’ and why as someone who has faced sight difficulties it meant so much to her to learn BSL.
Can you tell us about losing your sight at 60, that is very young?
I’ve always been myopic, so I’ve always been short sighted from a very young age, as my life went on, I managed to wear hard contact lenses, my sight was too bad for the soft ones. Then by the age of about 50, I couldn’t tolerate the lenses anymore and I was diagnosed with cataracts. I had those done and I was just using reading glasses for print then. I was working at the time as a chemo nurse and I was looking at the computer one day and I thought, something’s not right. There were missing bits, very strange. I had tests done and they told me I had glaucoma, macular degeneration and also myopic degeneration. I had to have stents in my eyes to drain the fluid.
Within the last six months, I’d say my eyesight has gone downhill a bit, but you just have to get on with it. I have a bit of a pixelated view of life you could say.
At the village I have to use a lot of technology, everything has to talk to me, it has to be that way. I can see some things, but it takes me a lot longer to work them out.
How did you find taking part in the show and learning BSL? Did you find you had support?
Our teacher always stood pretty close to us and I always made sure I was at the front.
I asked the interpreters to tell me what the words were, then I could concentrate on the sign, they’d sometimes have to sort my hands out. Rose was great, she gave me a lot of support too. I learn in a very old-fashioned way in that once I try and see something I have to compute it in my head, then you come back to that memory, it’s sense memory really. I’d take sheets of paper with the signs on after class and I’d take them back to my apartment where I’ve got a magnifier and everything goes under that. The sheets were coloured which also helps me. My magnifier machine was about £3000 and it actually reads for me as well.
What have you taken away from being a part of the project?
My community has increased because we were all sharing this. Some of the people here I didn’t know that well, now I have gained friends, which was really marvellous.
For myself personally, I’d say the biggest takeaway was the fact that I achieved, and I didn’t think I’d ever achieve anything again. I may not have been the best or anything like that, but I achieved something. I’ll always give things a try.
You’ve got to use your brain, that’s why I’m learning Tai Chi. A lot gets said in the media about using your brain and introducing it to new things, it doesn’t matter what it is, it can be a very simple thing, but once a month introduce something new to your day and it does make sense.
If you can learn sign, it’s pretty selfless to want to help when it’s not even something that’s going to help with your issue.
No, but who’s to say that issue won’t happen to me either? I had one big experience on this journey and it actually just broke me.
We met up at the Jewish Deaf Association. I met a man there who was both blind and deaf. He had an interpreter that would sign into his hands so he could feel it. I got asked, what do you want to ask him? I was just blown away by this guy and I just said ‘what advice would you give to us?’ He said ‘don’t give up’. At that point I left the room, I was crying all over the place. I thought for a man who is both deaf and blind, to lose two senses my god. That touched me.
As part of the show we went to play deaf bingo. That was interesting because I couldn’t see the caller and they were doing it all inside. Marius and Rose they took turns to sit close and they signed all the numbers to me. When I went out that morning, my signing of numbers was rubbish but by the end of the day, I was brilliant. My PA came with me and she helped me with the bingo cards.
We got to meet people who were deaf and we had the best conversation we could given our limits but it was quite a day.
What was your most important day of shooting?
Oh, I don’t know so many of them. There were so many things that we got to do. We had children from the deaf school here.
The day the children walked in and then they did an interview with us, it really moved me. There was one little girl, she was so smart and you could just see her potential as probably a teacher or something later. She was so clever, this kid. It was another huge day.
You weren’t expecting it to be so emotional?
Oh definitely not, but honestly I’m an emotional person anyway. It was a wonderful experience.
How did you find the experience, particularly filming with Rose and your tutor Marios?
Well, initially you get a bit starstruck, but after that they were just who they were. They were marvellous both of them, and Rose was just great. She threw herself into this and there wasn’t an ounce of celebrity nonsense about her.
Why do you think it’s important that people push themselves to learn something new, especially BSL and especially in later life?
It’s good to try new things if you have the capacity. Obviously not everyone has but I like to try new things.
It’s quite a big thing to take on you know, we’re trying to get better at it and go further with it, but trying new things at any age, particularly at this age can be hard. At our age life has it’s mundanities and to change that day-to-day mundaneness shall we say, it’s a really good thing. I think it’s really healthy.
So have you told any of your friends or family about this, how do they feel about this?
My general friends knew I was doing it. They are supportive, and were fascinated by it.
Do you feel supported at the village with regards to your sight?
They offer so much here at the village and I’m quite sad when I see people that don’t take that opportunity. A lot of older people have macular problems, so a lot of people here probably are slightly sight impaired anyway. One thing they do for me here which I really appreciate, is that they assist with Bingo. I have to have the same numbers every week. They blow my card up large for me. There’s usually somebody at the side of me keeping an eye, and if I need to complete a form or something, they can help with that.
Going forward are you going to continue to apply your learnings and if so, in what ways?
Yes, we’ve got the group every week. I don’t always get there twice a week but I try to get there at least once a week because in another year I may not be able to do it anymore, you know? I know my sight changes quite regularly, so I’m still hoping it won’t be too long, but I’ll give it a go, and if I can do it, I’ll do it.
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