She was reporting the hearing of noises to tell me she had gotten her hearing aids and they were working.

Fans of Kristy Gillentine still remember her columns from a few years back when she worked at The Sun.

Most people who read her stuff found her as endearing as her family always has. She developed a pretty good audience for such a youngster.

We were all surprised to learn, a few weeks before Christmas, that the beautiful and talented granddaughter, who turned 21 the first week in December, not only needed hearing aids, but had needed them for a long time.

“I could not hear right back in high school, but I was not about to get hearing aids then,” she explained. Ah, vanity, vanity.

Now she is working on the Bryan-College Station Eagle and the need has become more urgent.

“I can’t write about what the school board did if I can’t hear what they were saying,” she said.

Vanity has flown out the door, replaced by necessity.

And also replaced by new, cutting-edge, up-to-the-minute hearing aids so tiny that nobody will be able to see them.

“They pick up the higher registers, which is what I am missing,” she explained, along with a story about her hearing test.

“I was sitting in the booth, pushing a button every time I heard a sound. I pushed and pushed and then all of a sudden I had to stop because there was nothing. I looked out of the window and the guy was still pushing buttons and then I knew I was in trouble,” she said.

She’s one up on me. I took a hearing test once and had to have the door partly open. I am that claustrophobic.

After the test she found out about the super modern, super tiny aids that would do what she needed them to do. She got all the details, including what her insurance covered, how long the guarantee lasted and other pertinent details.

Last week she was fitted. It was a new world to her. And she shared it all by phone.

“My boyfriend was across the room and he was making whispering noises while they were putting them in and I could hear him,” she explained.

“I remember a friend who found out that trees had leaves on them when she got her first pair of glasses,” I said.

“It’s like that,” she replied.

Then I whispered a test question over the phone. Yes, she heard me perfectly.

“I’ll be home soon to show them to you,” she said.

I’m looking forward to finding out how hard it is to see them.

By Cathy Gillentine
http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=541fb90af6db9f94