Mary Amann Hale
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Happy Birthday Don...hope you have a great day...it was great to see you again at the reunion
Posted on: Sep 11, 2021 at 2:26 PM
Yep, Mike & I are still married. We have 2 children & 3 grandkids with another one on the way. After Mike was in the Army, we moved back to Park Forest for a long time. We moved a couple times after that & now live in St Louis. We are both now retired. Mike was a Regional Service Manager. Since I retired, I have been very busy advocating for the Deaf-Blind, Blind & Harding of Hearing communities. As I am now legally blind & have a profound hearing loss without my hearing aid & cochlear implant on. I lost my guide dog earlier this year but I am on a waiting list to get another one. I feel fortunate that I was able to fulfil my dreams with my advocacy. I was able to set up a peer support group for those with combined hearing & vision loss. We have been meeting monthly since 2009. I was able to get the process started to establish an SSP program in Missouri. SSPs are people who help the Deaf-Blind as their eyes & ears to assist in living an independent life as much as possible. This was accomplished by testifying to the Missouri House of Representative & Senate to get a bill passed in congress for this. Then on the national level, I traveled to Washington DC for the Helen Keller National Center to testify before congress on behalf of others with Deaf-Blindness too through out this country. So yes, I have kept busy & now trying to relax & enjoy retirement…. I am still waiting for those “Golden Years” to come! I hope to be there at the 50th Reunion. In the meantime I would love to hear from classmates by email & facebook.