Sponsored by Hearing Australia
Katie Cunningham
For Nanette Holliday, Christmas Day in Darwin is a jubilant affair. There’s “lots of prawns, lots of seafood, champagne and oysters” – and a lot of parties.
Holliday is a dedicated social butterfly, who crams as many engagements as she can into the silly season. But hearing loss in her left ear does mean it can be difficult to keep up with the conversation at those loud, busy celebrations. “The hardest part is when you’re walking around at a function, you do miss a lot of juicy gossip,” the 72-year-old laughs.
When she’s on her feet working the room, background noise and competing conversations can make it hard to hear everything being said. Sit-down events are easier, as Holliday will tell whomever she’s seated next to on her left side that she is partly deaf, and encourage them to give her a good tap on the shoulder when they want her attention. In the decade of life she’s in, Holliday is rarely the only one in her social circle wrestling with their hearing.
“You’d be surprised how many other people now say, ‘Oh, I’ve got hearing loss in that ear too’. They haven’t had accidents like I’ve had but have developed hearing loss over time.”
Navigating a worlds-apart diagnosis
Holliday’s own journey with hearing loss began earlier than most. At age 32, she burst an eardrum during a water-skiing accident. It led to an 18-month, near-fatal battle with cholesteatoma, a skin growth in the middle ear that eventually eats away at the bone surrounding the brain. Three surgeries later, doctors saved her life, but she never heard out of her left ear again. “It happened, we survived and got on with things,” Holliday shrugs, matter-of-factly.
The cards fate dealt Holliday didn’t dull her natural optimism or stop her from going on to live a fabulous life. A live wire who’s done it all, Holliday has worked as everything from a TV newsreader to a travel writer, launching businesses and raising children along the way. She’s lived in both Melbourne and France but has been based for many years in the vibrant Top End capital, a city she loves. It’s a lovely bonus that she gets to use her proximity to Asia to hop off on frequent overseas explorations.
But hearing loss does mean that social occasions can feel a little like those trips abroad. “I feel like I’m in a foreign country and not speaking the same language, because I can’t respond [in conversation] in the same way as everybody else can,” she says. “Or I say something really stupid in response because I didn’t hear the question properly.”
There was one time way back when she was riding in a car with a “really fantastic guy” her friend met on a plane.
“He was sitting in the front of the car, and her and I were sitting in the back. He asked a question that I didn’t quite hear properly, and I said something [that didn’t make sense] in response. My girlfriend shot me a look like, what are you talking about?” Holliday remembers. Disaster was, luckily, averted: “Somehow he still fancied me after that!”
Tuning in to the silver linings
Now that she’s in her 70s, Holliday has been proactive in looking after the hearing in her right ear. She has already been in for hearing checks at Hearing Australia, where it’s been determined that she can “still hear quite well out of [the right side]”. She will, however, keep close track of this and go back to get fitted for a hearing aid when the time comes – after all, her experience with cholesteatoma has taught Holliday how precious our hearing is.
Not to mention she’s seen how hearing aids have helped her friends stay part of the conversation.
“I’ve got friends who had hearing loss and got hearing aids. They hear everything now,” she says. “They hear all the juicy gossip!”
For now, there are some perks to being hard of hearing in a tropical city on those hot December nights. “The best part of it is when we’re having a storm up here overnight. When that happens, I roll over in bed onto my left side and don’t hear a thing,” she laughs. “If I want to scare the hell out of myself, I’ll roll over onto my right side. I almost jump right out of bed when the thunder claps!”
Concerned about your hearing? Book a free 15-minute adult hearing check with Hearing Australia – Australia’s most trusted hearing services provider since 2021, as voted by Reader’s Digest readers. Call 134 432 or book online at hearing.com.au/bookings
Only 15-minute adult hearing checks are free. Other services may attract charges/fees or may be subsidised for those eligible under the Australian Government Hearing Services Program, to which conditions apply. A hearing check is a screening that helps identify people that may have hearing loss.
