Grandma Needs To Stop Beeping Swearing
Bizarre, Golden Years, Home, Nurses, The Netherlands | Healthy | May 25, 2019
(I’m visiting my grandma, who is in her nineties, alongside my dad, who is 70. We talk about how life is going and suddenly I stop.)
Dad: “What’s wrong?”
Me: “I’m hearing a beep.”
Grandma: “What? What did she say? I haven’t got my hearing aids in today!”
(She is feeling a bit ill.)
Dad: “[My Name] says she hears a beep!”
Grandma: “I don’t hear anything!”
Dad: “That’s because your hearing aids aren’t in, Mom!”
Grandma: “What?!”
(Meanwhile, I’ve been browsing through the apartment, even looking outside. I’m moving my hand along with the beep; it’s several short ones and then a longer one, but never in a steady pattern.)
Grandma: “What is she doing?!”
Dad: “She’s looking for that beep!”
Grandma: “I’m not hearing anything!”
Dad: “Me, neither… [My Name] are you sure?”
(I can’t find the source, but limit it to a zone inside the living room, but nothing beeps whenever my ear gets near. What’s left is the fire alarm on the ceiling, beyond my reach. Maybe that is the source? Half an hour later, a nurse comes for my grandma’s medicine.)
Dad: “Excuse me, miss. My daughter is hearing a beep and I can’t hear it. Could you listen if you hear a beep, as well? She thought it could be from the fire alarm?”
Nurse: “What should I listen for?”
Me: “I’m not sure. It goes ‘beep-beep-beeeep,’ but never regularly. It sometimes reminds me of a microphone getting close to a speaker.”
(We are silent and the nurse nods. She confirms she hears the beeps, as well. She looks around and walks to the table. She picks something up.)
Nurse: “Is it gone now?”
Me: “Yes! What was it?!”
Nurse: “Your grandmother’s hearing aids. They were still on and too close to each other.”
|