Jennifer Pastiloff I don’t know what took me so long to watch Siân Heder’s Oscar-nominated drama “CODA.” One of my closest friends, MJ Grant, is a CODA: a child of deaf adults.
I was commanded to watch. People on social media, MJ, an Amazon delivery driver I’d waved to who wore hearing aids, my third cousin — everyone insisted I watch it.My delay wasn’t for lack of knowing it’d be great; the hundreds of “You Must Watch It Now” messages were evidence of that.My delay was because I was scared.I am deaf.
Without my hearing aids all I hear is tinnitus and muted versions of words (I guess to be): “coffee,” “Jennifer, “mommy?”I’ve always felt just out of earshot.
I rely on facial expressions and body language. Words collapse into themselves before I can reach them. Or before they can reach me.
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