Abby Evans smiling outside of her family’s home.
It’s stunning when a single piece of information changes your life abruptly.
In an instant, you’re jolted into the unknown. Fear and uncertainty take over: They envelop you, isolate you, cut you off from hope.
And then it happens. Almost miraculously, an encouraging hand reaches out through the darkness, providing enough support so you can steady yourself. And you discover a light within that enables you to find your way forward.
That’s how it was for Maureen Evans when—33 weeks pregnant with her third child—she learned that her 26-month-old daughter Abby was losing her hearing.
While the world was still in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic, Maureen refused to wait and acted on instinct. At almost two years old, Abby—born in May 2020—seemed delayed in speech. Maureen sensed it. But no one else noticed. Family and friends dismissed her concerns.
Maureen had already been through the early developmental milestones with her oldest child, 4-year-old Jack, and had herself grown up with a speech delay due to fluid in her ears. Tubes, plus a few years of speech therapy, had taken care of everything for her. Maybe Abby just needed tubes, she thought, “and would be gabbing in no time.”
Maureen trusted her instincts, convinced her husband Matt and pushed for testing.
Within weeks, Abby had an audiometry exam, but results were inconclusive. She was referred for a more definitive Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) test requiring sedation in a hospital. “To be honest, Matt and I started out about as relaxed as Abby,” Maureen described as the doctor ruled out various abnormalities during the initial exam.
But then red flags started flying during the ABR. Abby’s hearing threshold scores were much lower than expected. The audiologist decided to run the one-hour test again. The room’s entire demeanor changed as Maureen and Matt waited for the second set of results.
“The first few minutes after the audiologist finished were a blur,” Maureen recalls. “I heard ‘mild hearing loss,’ ‘steep something,’ ‘severe,’ ‘hearing aids,’ ‘molds,’ ‘now.’ And then I came to: ‘Wait, she’s getting hearing aids now?’”
And before Abby was even out of the anesthesia, molds were taken for her hearing aids, and Maureen and Matt had selected the brand and colors for the earmolds and earpieces.
“We settled on clear molds and light brown earpieces to blend in with her hair,” Maureen said. “Abby had significant hearing loss in both ears. And just like that, it was time to wake her up and figure out where to go from there.”
Jack Evans hugs his little sister Abby after one of her cochlear implant surgeries.
Maureen says it took months to adjust. She mourned her child’s newly discovered disability, and Abby’s hearing continued to worsen. In a roundabout way, it was Maureen’s oldest, Jack, now 6, who inspired her to find Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA).
“Mommy, are you crying about Abby again?” he asked as he entered the room one day while Maureen was holding his 6-week-old newborn brother Michael. “Are we ever going to have fun again? She’s going to be fine—I promise.”
With those child-honest words, Maureen felt an inner switch click on: She knew wholly, then and there, that she had to educate herself—that she had to find the right information and the right support so she could help her family navigate this new way of life. And in her search, she discovered HLAA.
The rest is history—but also the start toward a hopeful, blossoming future.
Maureen immediately signed up for the 2023 HLAA Convention in New Orleans. Joined by her sister, she saw a uniquely supportive community: “There were so many people who didn’t let hearing loss stop them—and I needed to see that,” Maureen reflects. “People kept thanking me for being there for my daughter. And I realized that a lot of them didn’t have the chance to figure it out early. They had to wait until they were adults to find the support they needed.”
Three-year-old Abby—thanks to her parents’ advocacy and support—is now thriving with two cochlear implants. The first was completed in July 2023, just six days after the HLAA Convention, and the second in November. Abby’s speech is improving and she’s hearing more and more sounds around her.
Maureen says it was the convention that inspired her to be all-in as an advocate for Abby—and for everyone with hearing loss. In fact, she and her family took the Chicago Walk4Hearing by storm in October with four busloads of supporters—144 people who were all part of Team Abby’s HEARoes. Plus, they had a post-Walk fundraiser at a nearby venue.
Abby’s HEARoes team at the Chicago Walk4Hearing in October 2023.
“We’ve come a long way in a short time,” Maureen explains. “I’m very public about Abby’s journey now. I want to help others facing similar circumstances—because when we started out, we knew no one who’d dealt with childhood hearing loss. I never could have imagined the day-to-day decisions we’d be faced with—or the long-term ones.”
Abby signs “I love you” in American Sign Language (ASL).
Maureen credits HLAA for her education and the community of support that’s changed her daughter’s life. She’s in touch regularly with the many friends she’s made—others who share her hearing loss journey. “It’s a family, and I can’t wait to get Abby involved when she is older.”
Maureen has been mentoring a local mom whose child was recently diagnosed with hearing loss, walking her through the process, and pointing her to resources. Her goal this year is to bring this mom to the HLAA Convention in Phoenix, so she can experience the HLAA community that inspired her.
“I recently learned from one of the hospital receptionists that she often thinks of how defeated Matt and I looked walking out of the ABR that day—an image of parent heartbreak and confusion. But thanks to HLAA and the support of so many others, we’ve found a way to turn our ‘grief’ into goodness. The future is bright.”
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