****
Today started off as any other day until she walked into Michael’s room. Books were strewn across the whole bed. He had a book on his lap as he was sitting cross-legged on his bed. He was signing the picture story as he was looking down at the book and then to the left. He was signing, “Little girl there, chair sitting, short size, hair long, blonde, eyes blue, dress pink, yellow spots, socks white, shoes black, store go-to, candy buy, finish,” which translated that the little girl went to the store to buy candy.
American Sign Language conversation was different from spoken English. Many words are left out and the conversation is straight forward and to the point.
“Who are you talking to sweetie?” Sandy signed to Michael. He kept signing his story, explaining everything in the picture and would giggle. Sandy walked up and tapped Michael on the shoulder, “Who are you talking to?” Sandy signed again.
“I’m talking to Great Grandma M,” he said matter of fact.
Sandy’s eyes welled slightly. She missed her Grandma. She passed away a few months ago, just after they moved to this new townhouse.
“Remember I told you Grandma M died before?” Sandy told Michael. Michael shook his head.
“But Grandma M says she is OK, don’t worry Mama!” Michael signed.
Sandy’s heart skipped a beat again. Michael had been mentioning his Great Grandma often recently and Sandy was afraid that Michael was missing her. He was really close to his Great Grandma. Sandy’s eyes welled. She sat the baby in front of Michael. He followed his eyes to look beside Michael in the direction that Michael was signing to.
Kyle lifted up his arms as if waiting to be picked up.
“Muh muh, muh muh, up,” he said. He was reaching beside Michael. Michael looked to his left again.
“Grandma I love you, Kyle I love you, Grandma,” he said meaning that he and Kyle loved Great Grandma as they were signing to this person that Sandy couldn’t see.
“Ok, it is time to get ready for swimming lessons honey,” Sandy said to her son.
“One minute!” he signed back with annoyance.
She could see him signing and nodding and laughing, random day to day chit chat things. Little Kyle seemed to babble back with his random baby talk words and he would gesture random things as if copying his big brother. Again Michael looked over with glaring eyes to his mom, “One minute!” he signed and rolled his eyes and tsk tsked his mother as if she rudely interrupting their extremely important conversation.
“Uh huh, muh muh, ess, muh muh,” Michael muttered as he signed, “Grandma, Grandma, yes, Grandma.”
Michael turned around and signed that Grandma had to go, they were busy talking on a cloud when Mom walked in, but it was OK, Grandma missed!
Mama too. “OK, Mama. Gramma OK, no worry. Doll black, Baby, hair short curls, remember? Gramma, you, doll play, remember? Books, shelf over there, books read remember, Chinese man,” he signed.
Sandy’s stomach fell again. She remembered when she was a little girl her daddy bought her a black doll with short curly black hair and she brought it over to show her Grandma. Her Grandma had a shelf with encyclopaedia’s and books with nursery rhyme stories. One story that Grandma used to read over and over was “The Five Chinese Men.” The wind was knocked out of her sails.
Sandy had to sit down on the bed. Baby Kyle crawled over on her lap and Michael leaned forward to kiss his mom and pat her on the back as if comforting his mom.
Michael was very smart and had an old soul many would say. He acted a lot older than he actually was. People wouldn’t believe he was only five with what he signed and talked about. He was writing very well for any aged child at five, let alone the fact that he was deaf. He was very advanced for his age. At age one, he was signing 100 words or more and was already signing three - four word sentences. Most hearing children only could speak a few words and not with grammatical sentence structure.
Sandy’s mouth dropped. “How did you know about my dolly?” Sandy had asked.
“Gramma M, tell-to-me, finish,” he signed quite to the point.
****
Finish in a sentence meant that something happened before; past tense in English structure. Deaf people sign in present and the words around let people know about the tenses. One would not sign You want to go to the store right now with me; it would read, “Now, me you, store go-to, want?” It would be signed with strong facial and body expression so that the person would understand that the statement would be a question requiring a yes or no response.