CATHERINE ELIZABETH SHEARER

Condolences & Memories (1 entries)

• I met Catherine when I became a board member of the Manitoba Chapter of the Canadian Hard of Hearing Assoc.(CHHA) She was a very warm person with a "Can Do" attitude. Catherine made a huge contribution in the lives of the HH. She pushed for Speech Reading classes and persuaded me to encourage my HH friends to join me in the courses. I have been HH most of my life and was a wee bit skeptical how more classes would improve my life as I had tons of lip reading classes when growing up. The courses were an eye opener, lip reading was only part of the course. She taught my friends and myself new coping strategies, the physiological reason why conversations are so hard to follow in noisy environments and how to stand up for ourselves. This made a huge difference in how I handle my deafness in this noisy world. She generously opened her house to meetings of the Young Adult Hard of Hearing (YAHH) group in the early 1990s when we needed to meet. She let me bounce off ideas for YAHH and offered good advise. I enjoyed those times in her big old lovely house drinking tea and discussing how to improve the lives of the HH. Her sense of humor and her enthusiasm for life stay with me and I am grateful to have known her. My condolences to the Shearer family in this difficult time. She was one great lady! - Posted by: Alice Crawford (former colleague) on: Jan 12, 2013