Jacek is deaf with cerebral palsy and speech impaired, and he will be turning severy-two years old early next year.

Yesterday (Saturday 1st of October 2022) was a rainy, bleak day, and my job as a deaf community worker/support worker for Jacek for over ten years since his mother passed away. I thought about where to take Jacek out and do his grocery last Friday, and I knew yesterday would not be a good day for his outing. I looked through our kitchen window, where five cherry trees were in our fields. Bingo, as I remembered the other day, I was driving through Hillcrest and Silverdale area on my way home in Eureka from work and saw cherry trees in blossom. That is it, and I will take Jacek to see the cherry trees in bloom on the way back from his grocery.

I asked Jacek’s permission: to use a few photos of his life growing up on the farm and Deaf School in Auckland. Deaf children, including D/deaf with disabilities, can be seen in the classroom. Yes, there are a couple Māori Deaf children in the photo. Jacek went up to Auckland and stayed there where there was a boarding house next to the Deaf school, then he came home during the weekend and school holidays in Waikato. Note the Government funded the school trip if any Deaf children and D/deaf with disabilities lived outside Auckland. My great-grandaunt, Flossie, was deaf, and she travelled on a train, then caught the ferry to South Island and boarded a train or bus as a Deaf children’s group travelling down to Van Asch School, Sumner, Christchurch. My great-grand uncle (Flossie’s brother) told me the Government – Ministry of Education paid for the trips.

Here are a couple photos of Jacek’s life on the farm near Te Aroha, Waikato, where his father worked with Fonterra (NZ Co-Operative Dairy Farms).

Jacek knows his disabilities affect his abilities to do anything around the home, work and in the community, such as lawn bowl. He gets frustrated if the barrier prevents him from doing any activity, and he will ask his parents, now his brother, but his brother lives far away and me. We always find a solution or a couple solutions for Jacek as he gets older and his walking mobility is less fast; I am not saying slow walking. The only remaining of his ability is the state of his mind can be affected by emotional behaviour, which makes it difficult for Jacek to accept, get anxious, worried over little things, hate changing the planning at the last minute without explaining to Jacek, to understand what happened out there, the loss of his Deaf elderly friends recently. Most of his Deaf elderly friends do not fully understand Jacek’s emotionally behaviour. It is not about mental health issues because it is so different to anyone with cerebral palsy disabilities.

Yesterday we went out to New World for his grocery and shopping list for me to check and tick off products as we go. The staff of New World has known Jacek and me for a long time, and they were delighted to see us again. At the checkout counter, there was two new staff as we were not known to them. The cashier was talking as I told the cashier that we were deaf. The cashier prepared simple sign language and gestures for Jacek, which delighted us. The second staff put every product in shopping bags and the trolley for me, which was helpful. Then we signed a thank you in our sign language to them as they copied our sign back to us, which was excellent in teaching the staff to learn about us.

After the grocery was done and I told Jacek that there was something that would make him smile as God and his parents were watching over him. We drove along Mansel Ave as we grew up in this area for many years; he was delighted to see many wonderful cherry flowers as his face lightened up the gloomy day.

“Our greatest glory is not never falling, but rising every time we fall” – Confucius.

“Magic is believing in yourself. If you can do that, you can make anything happen” – – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

As I dropped Jacek off at his home, he asked me about visiting his old Deaf elderly friend – Gordon, because Gordon’s birthday is next month. My reply was I would ask Gordon when I see him next week. And summer road trips outside Hamilton as we are nearing the Christmas season before I take an extended break holiday with my hearing partner and three dogs.