January 2026

Can You Hear Me Now?

By Sue Addelson
Posted: 12/01/2025

The ubiquitous Verizon ad campaign “Can you hear me now?” was humorous, playful. However, as many Villagers can attest, there is nothing humorous or playful about hearing loss. We know that when people can’t hear, they tend to withdraw. They drop out of social situations, which isolates them even more. For many, there’s a stigma to admitting hearing loss, because many younger people associate it with aging or worse – dementia. Not to mention, an individual’s efforts to overcome hearing loss can be exhausting.

Gail Miller, who has lived with significant hearing loss most of her life, and Claire Gorfinkel, who recently received a Cochlear implant, met in September to talk about providing resources for Villagers who are hearing-impaired. Out of that discussion, the Pasadena Village Hearing Loss Resource Group was born. “We intend for this group to be a forum to learn about resources to improve hearing and access to workarounds, technology and techniques to assist them with hearing,” explains Gail. “This group will  allow us to learn about things that might prove useful, to ourselves and our loved ones, now or in the future,” added Claire.

At the first meeting in late September, eleven Villagers shared their specific hearing issues: not being able to hear when there’s background noise; the cost of hearing aids; whether they actually need hearing aids; finding a trustworthy audiologist; and various technologies and work-arounds.  

At the group’s next meeting, Claire and Marv Dainoff spoke about their cochlear implants. Claire’s hearing was so compromised, she had removed herself from many social situations. The day she went to Kaiser, got tested, and found out she qualified for the implant, she was elated. “I felt like it was my last resort!” She said the surgical procedure itself wasn’t too bad. The discomfort came afterwards. “I went home with bandages on my head. I experienced numbness and tingling; it was uncomfortable.” Claire is now learning how to hear with the implant. It’s an arduous six to twelve month learning curve.

While Marv’s hearing loss stemmed from a different cause than Claire’s, and he chose a different implant - All cochlear implants aren’t the same - he experienced similar discomfort and has the same six to twelve months of retraining in front of him.  

Given all that, would they do it again? In a heartbeat!  For years, Claire had steered away from group outings; the noisy environment was excruciating. Now she’s venturing out again. Prior to getting his implant, Marv says he was pretty much excluded from family dinner conversations. “Now I can begin to participate,” he said.

Future meetings include a presentation by Gail about the various devices, tools and workarounds she uses, and a program with an audiologist to answer the myriad questions Villagers have about hearing aids.

The next meeting will be in January. Gail and Claire encourage all Village members who are experiencing hearing loss - or whose loved ones are experiencing hearing loss - to come and take advantage of this Resource Group.