Tom and Pat Cressey just celebrated 63 years of marriage.  “We had steamed Jordan’s red hot dogs and a salad for supper.  We’d never had red hot dogs before.  We liked them!”

For Pat, hearing aids are like roller skates.  “You see them and you think that would be fun, but you’re afraid to try.  It’s something everybody should just try, because you will like it when you do.”

She turns 80 this year and she’s had a phobia about hearing aids her whole life.  “I’d always thought hearing aids were like a coffin you’d put on every morning.  Just old folks have hearing aids.  And I’m not old.”

Her husband Tom has worn hearing aids since his late 60s.  It took him a dozen years, but he finally convinced Pat to give them a try.

“Fortunately Tom did not have my same phobia,” she laughs.

She’s now been wearing hearing aids for six months.

“As soon as the audiologist put them in my ears she said to me ‘I can see that look in your eyes.’  It was like being a child again.  I could hear!”

Pat enjoys being in the loop again.

“For years, I would just look at people while they were talking and smile and say ‘Yup, yup, yup’ but I didn’t know what they were saying.  I thought that’s just how it was always going to be.  Now I’m back in the loop.  I can hear.”

Pat’s first pair of hearing aids worked perfectly.  “I’m so content.  It has made such a difference.  I put them in and have had them in ever since.  I only take them out at night.  It’s a normal part of my routine and they are easy to get in and out.  Tom and I wear the same kind.”

Her advice?  Like red hot dogs and roller skates: “Just try them.  You will like them.  You don’t know what you’re missing.”