SAUGUS — One Saugus business has found a way to make a difference during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last week, Revere resident Michael Symanski eagerly showed up for his mid-morning appointment at Beltone Hearing Aid Center in Saugus to be fitted with new, state-of-the-art hearing aids — completely free of charge.
“I’m really excited,” said Symanski, who is legally deaf, before his fitting. “I’ve worn hearing aids since I was 3 years old, and when I first got them, they were analog and were only able to amplify my hearing. As years went on, they started getting better and better, and then about 10 years ago, I started getting digital hearing aids.
“From my understanding of these hearing aids, it’s not a tube — it’s more digitized than before. There are a lot of things you can do with it, and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Behind the thoughtful gesture was Beltone New England audiologist Anita McGrory, who headed the Beltone Foundation-funded effort after she learned that thanks to the global public health crisis, Symanski — a client at the center who was already undergoing the process of purchasing new hearing aids — had lost his job as a chef in June and would no longer be able to pay for the badly-needed technology out of his own pocket.
She said that when Symanski reached out to her about his situation and told her he had been without fully functioning hearing aids since 2019, she was immediately moved to help and nominated him as a Beltone Foundation candidate.
“I was like, ‘this guy has lost his job and has no means of being able to financially afford these, but he needs them desperately,’” McGrory said. “He has profound hearing loss. He’s worn them all his life and he’s very reliant on hearing aids.”
In a letter he wrote to the foundation, Symanski explained he was born during the German Measles epidemic of the 1960s and his mother contracted the disease while pregnant, which caused Symanski moderate to severe congenital hearing loss.
Having grown used to his hearing aids early on, however, Symanski was still able to lead a relatively typical life.
Raised in Revere, he graduated from parochial high school as a teenager before going on to obtain a degree in culinary arts, which began his 30-year career as a sous chef and kitchen manager in several Boston-area restaurants.
An avid music lover, Symanski’s aids, affectionately named “Layla” and “Roxanne,” have also accompanied him to more than 200 concerts.
“Layla and Roxanne have been my partners in crime for 50 years,” he wrote in his initial letter. “They have been with me through thick and thin. If it wasn’t for them, I would have never experienced the sound of chirping birds, waves breaking (on) the shore, and the noise of neighborhood kids playing outside.”
Shortly after Symanski was approved for his new hearing aids, he met with McGrory at the Saugus Beltone location in October to go over details of his fitting.
“She did a wonderful job helping me pick our beautiful outfits to surprise Layla and Roxanne for our Golden Anniversary,” he said.
McGrory said she was happy she was able to witness first-hand Symanski’s bond with his hearing aids.
“It’s funny. He talked about his hearing aids as if they were people,” she said. “These hearing aids have gone with him throughout his life and been with him through all these different experiences.”
As the date of his fitting approached last week, Symanski, who also acknowledged his gratitude to the Beltone Foundation and McGrory, said he wasn’t the only one breathing a sigh of relief.
“With not wearing one hearing aid and the other not working well, I’ve been straining to hear, (which has made me) tired and cranky,” he said. “My family is happy to hear I won’t be tired and cranky all the time.”
Elyse Carmosino can be reached at [email protected].