The New York Times-20080129-For a Woman Who Is Unable to Hear- More Difficulties Lie Ahead

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For a Woman Who Is Unable to Hear, More Difficulties Lie Ahead

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For Ramona Palanco, life is silent. It is now becoming darker, too.

Ms. Palanco, who has been deaf since birth, lives with her husband, Gustavo Palanco, and their four children in a duplex apartment on Roosevelt Island. She holds a steady job assembling office chairs at the Pibbs Industries factory in Queens and has joined an online deaf community that speaks in sign language via Web cam.

But some of the light in her life is gradually dimming. Ten years ago, she began to suffer headaches and noticed blurriness in her eyesight. Her peripheral vision darkened; at times, it disappeared completely. A visit to a doctor confirmed the worst: Usher syndrome, a gradual worsening of vision that affects a small percentage of the hearing impaired and leads to complete blindness. At the time of the diagnosis, Ms. Palanco was 26.

When a doctor told me I had this, I was wondering how I would take care of my family, Ms. Palanco said on a recent visit to her home. (Ms. Palanco spoke in sign language; a social worker, Deena Morris, translated.)

I am very afraid of the thought of being blind fully, Ms. Palanco said. I don't want to miss my children growing up, the future that's ahead for them.

Ms. Palanco, 36, is a petite woman with a cherubic face, her bright eyes matched by a bright smile. Mr. Palanco, her husband of two decades, beamed as he sat nearby. Their children, who range in age from 11 to 17, darted in and out of the room.

In the Dominican Republic, where she grew up on a farm, Ms. Palanco was the only deaf person in her town. A friend of the family found a boarding school for deaf children. There, she met Mr. Palanco, who is also deaf. It was very difficult for me because I had to do a lot of speech and writing, she said. There was no sign language.

By the time she was 17, Ms. Palanco and her husband had married and moved to the United States to live with his family on 162nd Street in Manhattan.

We flew here together, on the visa, just so I can get help with my hearing and my hearing aid and things like that, she explained.

The transition to life in New York was not always easy. I was young, Ms. Palanco said, laughing. I didn't really know what was going on.

The Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service, one of the seven agencies supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund -- where Ms. Morris, the translator, works -- has helped Ms. Palanco find employment and medical care since 1995.

The group is now assisting her with another problem: About three years ago, Ms. Palanco's green card fell out of her handbag. It was gone, and with it her ability to travel between the United States and the Dominican Republic to visit her mother, who has osteoporosis, and her sister, who has kidney problems.

She had hoped to save enough for the paperwork to get a new one, but Mr. Palanco was laid off from his job a short time later. He has since started working again, but their savings went toward the rent, and Ms. Palanco became alarmed that she would never see her relatives again.

Her family received $370 from the Neediest Cases Fund to help her get a new green card. Just before the new year, Ms. Palanco met with immigration officials in New York.

She received her new card on Jan. 15, and is now saving for a trip to see her mother and sister in August. Ms. Morris, her caseworker, said Ms. Palanco was thrilled.

But her medical condition has continued take a toll. I feel very upset about it, Ms. Palanco said. I want to help them -- she gestured toward her children -- but it's going to be hard.

When she received the diagnosis, she cried. I'm alone and frustrated with this, she said. I feel my condition is slowly worsening. I miss a lot of things.

She travels to Manhattan several times a week for therapy sessions with an eye doctor. I'm really hoping that by going to my specialist, he'll be able to help me, she said. I'm dependent on luck here.

[Illustration]PHOTO: Ramona Palanco, center, and her husband, Gustavo Palanco, both of whom are deaf, at home with their daughter Mabella.(PHOTOGRAPH BY GABRIELE STABILE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)