A Blast from the Past–Visiting Northern Illinois University

Yesterday, I headed west to Northern Illinois University for my annual visit with Dr. Ouellette. Dr. Ouellette is the Department Chair for the School of Allied Health. Each year, I speak to her graduate class about Hands & Voices and raising deaf and hard of hearing children. Every year, we grab lunch together before class and catch up on life.

After the class was over, I headed over to the Health building and visited some old friends and staff. It has been 23 years since I first set foot on campus, but many of the same staff are still there. And each year that I come back to NIU, I’m more and more aware of how quickly time is passing by. I used to babysit for many of the staff at NIU and now their kids are in college and in some cases, starting families.

Ah, but what really broke my heart was seeing a popular bar shuttered and up for lease:

There were some good memories at that bar!

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Disaboom.com–A Community for People with Disabilities


A few months ago, I was asked by Disaboom.com to join their group of bloggers writing about life. My blog posts can be found here: Deaf Mom’s Disaboom.

Disaboom is a brand new website that focuses on disability topics and people with disabilities. The website launched in October of this year, and will re-launch with some improved changes in January of next year. The Vancouver Sun recently did an article on Disaboom: Disaboom Gathers Disabled. One of my blog posts has a brief mention in there.

Here are some of the popular blog posts I’ve done at Disaboom:

Carmel Flores

Disability Blogs on the Web

Meet Stephen Hopson

Henry Kisor Releases New Mystery Novel

The Deaf Freedom Cruise

Deaf People Have Signaoke!

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Barbe Gurga–Ride like the Wind, Girl!


It was a cold, blustery day for a funeral today. St. Alphonsus Church, located in the heart of Lincoln Park, was filled with friends and family who came to remember Barbe Gurga, a deaf Rehabilitation Counselor. For 21 years, Barbe worked with countless deaf and hard of hearing clients to develop their careers and assist in finding jobs. In April, 2004, Barbe was diagnosed with uterine cancer. Even after getting round after round of chemotherapy, Barbe headed off to work as long as she could.

My first encounter with Barbe was back in 1989. I headed to her office from graduate school to shadow her on the job for several days. Each day, we went out to lunch and chatted up storm. I remember asking her, “Do you like what you do?” Barbe smiled and said, “Yes, I love my job and the people I help, I just don’t like the paperwork.”

I continued to see Barbe at meetings and advocacy events throughout the years. Then I had my kids and focused on being a mom and I saw her less and less. But each time I ran into Barbe, she always had a smile on her face and a positive outlook on life.

The Eulogy was given by Jay Blumenfeld and signed by Howard Rosenblum. Jay recalled some of Barbe’s last days:

“She told me she wanted to get better so she could go back to Switzerland and ride her moped through the mountains and feel the wind blowing on her face with birds soaring high in the sky. I looked at her with a smile while she was telling me her dream, thinking that she would not be able to go back. But now I do realize her dream did come true–it’s called Heaven. Barbe is now free and she can ride her moped anywhere and anytime her wonderful, beautiful spirit takes her!”

So Barbe, girl– ride like the wind!

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