I work with a CNC lathe.
I program the lathe, or sometimes I have to mill something by hand, they use me for different things.
Sometimes I help colleagues and give them advice about speeds or how to do something.
No, it's not really about depth in my work.
I'm the only one that's deaf, the other colleagues can hear.
Yeah, I speak clearly and they understand me and that's an advantage.
When we have a work meeting there's always an interpreter.
–When he was little he was always a bit shy. –Yeah he was a bit of a dork.
But the older he got, the more confidence he got, the better he did. He started getting better at expressing himself. Really impressive.
He used to keep everything in, but that changed because I had him talk about all kinds of things.
I don't remember that. I always used sign language.
–He surely wasn't a hero back then. He was shy and introvert.
Sign language gave him a foundation which helped him become more stable.
Sign language was important but also the open communication at home.
When I had done something bad, he'd see that I got punished. That made him careful of course.
If he would have grown up in a hearing family, the reprimand would have been in spoken Dutch, and he would have not understood.
That's what I mean with open communication. We knew everything that was being said.
I did things, but Amos saw the consequences of course, and was much more careful because of that.
It goes to show, with sign language you can understand everything.
–Sarah was pretty cheeky, and I didn't dare to do what she did.
Dad was pretty stern and seeing how he handled her made me look for another way.
The cowardly way, but I looked for another way. Even though she just put it all out in the open.
–Looking back, Sarah was already like that as a baby. She was always busy.
She could sit when she was three months, wanted to eat. Do everything by herself.
–But that doesn't have anything to do with being deaf.
–Sarah and I always played outside together. Yeah because the other children could hear, and we couldn't play with them.
We used to play football and one time, I'll never forget, it was amazing.
We were playing football and there were two holes in the wall. One was the neighbor above us, a sour man who always sent us away.
I was the goalkeeper and Sarah kicked the ball.
And you guessed it, Sarah kicked the ball in the neighbor's hole.
Because I could talk so well I had to go ask if we could have our ball back. But the neighbor wouldn't give it back.
Someone was washing the car and Sarah grabbed the bucket...
...stood in front of the man with that bucket ready and said: give that ball back!
The neighbor quickly handed the ball back. She was so bold, I'll never forget that.