Anne McLaughlin remembers listening to the distant whistle of the train at 8:15 a.m., a reminder it was time to go to school.

Also in her childhood memory bank are the exuberant shouts that filled the house as her father and brothers listened to baseball games on the radio, and the voice of her sister Alice Mary who could sing “Ave Maria” like nobody else.

Then one day there was sound but few discernable words.

Later, even the sound was often gone.

McLaughlin, who was born and raised in Philadelphia, had severe hearing loss after she contracted meningitis at the age of 10. Doctors at the time, in the early 1950s, failed to identify what would later be diagnosed as nerve deafness in her inner ear.

“The doctor said to my mother, ‘Well, we’ll take out her tonsils and see if that helps,’ or ‘She’ll grow out of it,’” McLaughlin recalled.

To compensate for their daughter’s hearing loss, McLaughlin’s parents enrolled her in a small Catholic girl’s elementary school and then Melrose Academy, run by the Gray Nuns of the Sacred Heart, where she would receive more individual attention.

A gifted student who read voraciously, she then attended St. Joseph’s College in Emmitsburg, Md., where her teachers were the Sisters of Charity. McLaughlin credits the women religious with not only nurturing her intellect and spirit, but also encouraging her family to see a hearing specialist who diagnosed her as having nerve deafness in the inner ear.

Because she lost her hearing after receiving education in speech and language skills, McLaughlin is included in a population described as late-deafened adults.

That didn’t mean that deafness was something she willingly accepted.

“If you had suggested I learn signing at that time, I would have been enraged,” she said.

Life was full for McLaughlin, who met and married her late husband Donald and raised two sons in their home in Los Altos. But she was lying to herself in one very significant way.

“I would not admit how frustrating it was to not be getting (the message) at Mass or all the charismatic meetings I attended,” McLaughlin said. “It was really crazy for me to go to all those talks and not have a clue what they were saying.”

McLaughlin said she waited until she was in her early 40s to learn just enough sign language to get by.

“Clinically you’re deaf but you’re not deaf with a capital ‘D,’” she said. “You’re not part of the signing community but you’re really not part of the hearing world.”

It would not be until she moved to the Sacramento area a few years ago, following her husband’s death in 1998, that a series of events would literally change her life.

First, she met Jean Nelson, who was at the time co-director of the diocese’s ministry to the deaf. Nelson connected her with a signing interpreter, so for the first time in her adult life McLaughlin could not only attend church activities but understand most of what was being said.

McLaughlin joined St. John the Baptist Parish in Folsom, where she is one of the regulars at the 11:30 a.m. Sunday Mass. Initially she would follow the Mass as much as possible in her Missalette, but was frustrated at never being able to hear the homily. So one Sunday over a year ago McLaughlin asked Deacon Jim Meucci for a copy of the homily he had given that day.

Meucci, a retired otolaryngologist (ear and throat physician), told McLaughlin about captioning and set about devising a way to bring a court reporter and television monitor into the church for Sunday Mass.

With the support of Father Ignatius Haran, pastor of St. John the Baptist, Meucci facilitated the use of a captioning technique known as “Computer Aided Real-Time Transcription.” This is a system in which Scripture readings, the homily and final prayer are projected onto a television screen set up on the front right side of the sanctuary.

“Annie was transfixed by it,” said Meucci, who also has had hearing impairment in his left ear since he was in his 20s. “People can’t appreciate hearing loss unless they have it.”

Due to the expense of bringing a court reporter on site, the church elected in September to change to a different type of captioning. Currently Cal Dexter, a St. John the Baptist parishioner, provides captioning during the Mass three times a month via a Power Point presentation. Once a month captioning is provided by an on-site transcriber.

“I feel I have really been so blessed in my life,” said McLaughlin, who has become something of a gentle activist for late-deafened adults.

A member of the Association of Late Deaf Adults, she has met many people who are still struggling with the isolation that often comes with hearing loss.

“People who lose their hearing often grieve because they are cut off from their religious involvement,” she said. “They need to know there is hope, a place to share their stories and realize they are not alone.”

To reach out to the late deafened or hard of hearing, the diocese’s department of Catholic Faith Formation’s deaf ministry has scheduled a meeting and information session to be held March 27 from 10 a.m. to noon at St. Philomene Parish at 2428 Bell St. in Sacramento.

Peggy Walrath, coordinator of deaf ministry, said that unlike the deaf, the late deafened typically do not know sign language but rather depend on speech, speech reading, hearing aids and other assistive listening devices for communication. Too frequently their special needs make it hard or impossible to understand homilies or be active participants in parish meetings, prayer groups and social events.

“Hearing loss imposes significant social isolation when people can’t follow a conversation in a noisy place or large gathering,” Walrath said. “People prefer to drop out rather than risk boredom or embarrassment.”

She said the information session at St. Philomene will be an opportunity “to gather information from people with hearing loss from individual parish communities, individuals with common experiences and spiritual needs.”

For more information about the March 27 meeting, call Catholic Faith Formation at (916) 733-0123 or Peggy Walrath at (916) 733-0129.

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