I took some classes in sign language when I was in my early teens because I was told that I would be completely deaf very early. But I never really wanted to learn.
The news of the discovery spread fast all over the country, and inquisitive enquiries mingled with congratulations from this moment became the daily programme.
The success or failure of a life, as far as posterity goes, seems to lie in the more or less luck of seizing the right moment of escape.