A Joyful Event
Danny, my youngest son, and Susan, his fiancée, were married in a civil ceremony in Berkeley, California on Saturday, October 30, 2010. They had been together for nine years so, when they told me in April they were planning to make their relationship official, I was delighted.
While they looked for a venue for the wedding, I thought about how I would cope because the last time three of my children were married twenty five years ago, my hearing was a lot better than it is now. When the Berkeley City Club (BCC), an Historic Hotel built in 1930 was chosen for the wedding, I e-mailed Trevor Johnson, the hotel’s Operations Manager, and told him I needed a hearing accessible room, including an alerting system for the phone, door and smoke alarm, an amplified phone and captioned TV. Mr. Johnson replied the hotel was willing to accommodate me but had never had such a request before.
I contacted the Berkeley City Attorney who suggested several hotels in the area that might be able to lend the BCC a hearing accessible hotel kit and forwarded that information to Mr. Johnson. We exchanged several e-mails. It was agreed the hotel would install an amplified phone with a blinker, a door knock alerting device for my room and that Hotel Security would be alerted to fetch me in case of an emergency at night. The day before I arrived from New York, we confirmed these arrangements. In keeping with the ambiance of the property, there are no individual-room TVs. There is a public TV area in the lobby which I did not have time to visit so I don’t know if it has captioning.
The next step was to make the wedding ceremony hearing accessible. Both Susan and Danny, our family techy, are understanding and supportive of my accessibility needs. Danny recently started wearing hearing aids and brought an especially sympathetic attitude to making the wedding work for me. He and Susan arranged to have their friend Todd Peterson, the Officiant, wear my FM transmitter. At the wedding rehearsal on Friday afternoon, Crystal Myers, the hotel staff person in charge of the event, took the FM transmitter and plugged it into one of the speakers which made it possible for me to be "tuned in" and for Mr. Peterson to conduct the wedding without wearing the FM unit.
As the ceremony began, I proudly walked Danny down the aisle. When I reached my seat, I turned on my FM receiver which my daughter was holding for me. Although I had read the script before hand and knew what to expect, I was delighted to be able to hear my son and daughter-in-law exchange their wedding vows and say “I do.” I used a direct audio input mike with my hearing aid at the pre-wedding reception and at the dinner after the ceremony. Both functions were very noisy, and I was grateful for this method of communication. During dinner a wireless mike was passed around to the guests who were asked to offer toasts to the bride and groom. I could not hear what was being said and, by that time, was too tired to figure out how to deal with the situation. I’m looking forward to receiving the video of the wedding. Then I will be able relive this very special event and enjoy the stories, jokes and toasts, too.
To learn more from the Center for Hearing and Communication about the assistive technology in this story click here.
If you have comments or questions about this article, please contact me at buzz@CHChearing.org.
Ruth D. Bernstein
