A Doctor's Wisdom

The spring after James died, I noticed that Jim didn't always pay attention to what I said—but what year and a half old child does?
Kept noticing.
One day we were sitting on the couch and he wasn't paying attention to my reading aloud. I covered his right ear with my hand and whispered in his left ear. "Do you want to go to Ashburn’s for an ice cream cone?"
No response.
Then in his right ear, and he jumped off the couch ready to go.
The next day I told Sam. Well, neurotic moms are a real bother, and especially one whose child was just recovering from months of trauma and whose husband had died recently. But Sam was always patient and great to us. Seldom did we go to his office when the children were sick.
He stopped by the house on his way home. And this was after doctors stopped making house calls. He couldn't see anything wrong with Jim's ears. But there was a new ear doctor in town, and he wanted me to go to him. He made the arrangements.
We went in to see the strange doctor.
He went to work with his tuning forks and lights and stuff, and Jim was NOT cooperative at all. Jim was about two and a half by then, and conversed in sentences—when he wanted to! But he refused to answer any questions.
So the doctor told me he must be deaf and if he never learned to talk , come back in 6 months.
I was so furious that I took Jim out of that office and went to Sam. He arranged for me to take him to Houston to THE BEST specialist in the state. Jim cooperated there with a doctor who knew how to handle children.
He gave me the news that there was nerve deafness in the left ear, and there was NOTHING to be done. Just take good care of the right ear.