An Interview with a Mentor & Mom
By Karen Putz and Stephanie Olson, H&V Headquarters
We are so pleased to Introduce Heidi Klomhaus, Arizona H&V Chapter Director through this interview. We hope you enjoy getting to know Heidi, and the tremendous life experience and journey she brings to our organization.
Q – Tell us a little bit about you and your journey.
I am a late-identified Hard of Hearing adult with three children, ages 24, 10, and 7. My youngest is Hard of Hearing like myself. When I was identified, times were very different; not much information or resources were available to parents. My mother was disengaged; she didn’t seek information or resources beyond the audiologist, who told her to work hard on my speech if she wanted me to be “normal”. So work hard we did. I spent many years catching up on my language and speech production. I don’t like to say that I was language-deprived because I feel that even with a delay in diagnosis, I had a good foundation. I was “language-fed” through books. I was fortunate enough to have a grandmother and a great uncle who nurtured my love of reading.
My mother encouraged and enforced good speech production. While I am very thankful for that, (I do very well for the degree of loss I have) that singular focus has also limited me in many ways. I didn’t learn to advocate for myself as I should have. My understanding was limited to only the fragments of conversations I could pick up. For example, in social situations, I never learned to embrace and own my hearing difference enough to assert my need to be involved and included. Oftentimes, I chose to be alone rather than to make friends. I chose to “hide” that I wore hearing aids and didn’t engage unless necessary. My mother did the best she could and thought she was helping me by telling me “you’re no different than anyone else and shouldn’t receive special treatment”. This, in her mind, was the way to help me, but later, it left me incapacitated as an adult.
In my late twenties, I had no real career, working dead-end jobs with no benefits and no insurance. Rock bottom came when I lost my job. I set an alarm but slept through it and didn’t arrive on time to work. I lost not only my job, but also my car, and my home. I had no idea there were devices such as vibrating alarm clocks, resources to help acquire hearing aids, or agencies to guide you to these resources. I truly was at a loss for what to do. My boss (who didn’t want to let me go but needed someone reliable every morning) found Vocational Rehabilitation for me and I was placed on a waiting list. Fast forward. I received hearing aids and was back out in the workforce. I never wanted to be in a situation again where I would be so isolated.
I made a choice to go to school and learn American Sign Language (ASL). The advisor I met encouraged me to become an interpreter. Of course, I was clueless about what being an interpreter meant but I started classes, learned the language, and discovered more about Deaf culture. In that process, I began to discover myself as a Deaf person and embracing that instead of feeling limited by deafness. While I knew throughout my Deaf Studies that becoming an interpreter was not a good fit for me, I continued to pursue the degree, believing it would benefit me somehow. It was during this time that I had my youngest daughter. When the hospital screener told me that she hadn’t passed her hearing screen, I experienced a myriad of emotions ranging from sadness, anger, and eventually excitement and joy. The sadness and anger welled up from all my negative experiences from childhood and into adulthood. However, I quickly made a conscious decision to acknowledge that my daughter has a mother who is far more equipped with knowledge. I knew then that I was pursuing this degree and gaining all this knowledge into the Deaf world because I was meant to be her mother. I knew that she would have every opportunity to be the best version of herself she could be.
I took advantage of Early Intervention services. I signed and talked with her always, I joined a toddler program at the local Deaf school, and I attended every Deaf event I knew about to give her exposure to others. I attended playgroups set up by the Deaf Mentor even when we were the only family going at times. I continued setting up playgroups when the Deaf Mentor moved to another state. I stayed engaged in every way that I could so that she would always be able to connect to others and know she is never alone as a deaf person.
Q – How did you become involved with Hands & Voices?
I became involved a few years ago when I took a job with the EAR Foundation of Arizona as a Follow-up Coordinator. There, I met Najwa Ghattas, the previous executive director of Arizona Hands & Voices. She told me a little about H&V and invited me to their board meeting. She offered me a position as a Parent Guide. I later came on as co-executive director as her mentee while learning all I could about the systems that serve our Deaf/hard of hearing (D/HH) children. I am now the Executive Director and the GBYS Coordinator for our state.
Q – What do you enjoy most about being the Executive Director of a Hands & Voices chapter?
The thing I enjoy most about being Executive Director is knowing that I am making a difference within the systems that serve our D/HH children. I can bring many insights, thoughts, and ideas to the table and be a collaborative partner in the continuous evolvement of systems. That brings me joy!
Q – What do you do for fun?
For fun I enjoy several things. I enjoy reading, binge watching Netflix, and playing word games. Mostly I enjoy doing anything that puts smiles on my children’s faces because in many ways, I am still a kid at heart.
Q – Share a win you’ve experienced on your journey.
I have many wins, but one that I relish in every day is about my daughter. I remember being her age and nowhere near as outgoing or self-aware as she is at age seven. She is the first to speak up if she doesn’t hear something clearly. She tells her brother all the time, “Eddie, you know I can’t hear you if you’re walking away from me.” She speaks up in class when her Roger disconnects for whatever reason. My favorite: One day I heard her explaining about her hearing aids to a friend. She said, “You know my mom and I both wear hearing aids because they help us hear. If we take off our hearing aids, BAM, we can’t hear! Good thing we know sign language. We can talk with our hands!” That moment I think is when I truly realized that I had done everything right so far and that she will be her own best advocate as she grows. ~
H&V Communicator – Summer 2020