Another Way to Listen
David Hagstrom May 14, 2024 7 Comments
Editor’s Note: This piece was a finalist in the Pulse writing contest, “On Being Different.”
“David, from this moment forward, you’ll need to listen with your heart.”
It’s been forty years since I heard these words, but they ring as clearly in my mind as if it were yesterday.
My night nurse, Jill, whispered them into my left ear—the only one still able to hear after my fourteen-hour brain surgery to remove a tangerine-sized growth from the acoustic nerve, which affects hearing and balance.
