The July/August 2011 issue of Hearing Loss Magazine (HLM), which I design and produce bimonthly for the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA), is hot off the press! This month’s “cover guy” is my friend and fellow blogger from Oslo, Norway—Ulf Nagel, accompanied by his handsome son, Oskar.
I discovered Ulf’s insightful, well-researched and painfully honest blog, Becoming Deaf in Norway, on Abbie (Cranmer) Hlavacek’s blogroll a few years ago. After reading Abbie’s blog about her hearing loss journey, I knew we had to feature her in the magazine. Abbie wrote her feature for the May/June 2008 issue of HLM and I spotlighted her on this blog here.
A few years later, she and future husband Todd hired me to photograph their wedding in October 2010. Learn how I first met Abbie (and her friend and bridemaid, Jennifer Thorpe) here, read the first recap of Todd and Abbie’s wedding day here, view Abbie’s stunning bouquet crafted by her friend and “second mother” Phyliss Hendley here, and see more wedding photos here, here, and here.
The Internet and the world of blogging has introduced me to so many wonderful people from all walks of life and I’m always fascinated by the way stories and people weave in and out of those experiences. Discovering Abbie Cranmer via her blog resulted in her being featured in the magazine and me photographing her wedding just two years later. Abbie was an Advanced Bionics (cochlear implant manufacturer) mentor and was helping Todd’s brother, Gregg Hlavacek, through the process. Gregg introduced Abbie to Todd Hlavacek via e-mail during the mentoring process and the two fell in love online! Abbie and Todd are expecting their first baby, a boy, in late September.
I discovered Abbie’s friend and future bridesmaid, Jennifer Thorpe, on Abbie’s blogroll. I then met and photographed Jennifer and her lovely family at the HLAA Convention in Nashville in 2009. A year later, Jen wrote her feature article, I Am Simply Me, for the July/August 2010 issue of Hearing Loss Magazine. Click here to download the pdf of that article from HLAA’s website.
And the connections just get better—as a result of the photographs I shot of Abbie & Todd’s beautiful wedding, HLAA member Tina Fifer and her future husband, Tom Hamblin, hired me to photograph their wedding this October! Last month I posted their engagement photo on my blog here.
Tina just happens to work with HLAA member Mike Royer. I met Mike Royer at a stock photo shoot for HLAA three years ago, then photographed his adorable family in my studio here and here. Mike and Alicia asked me to photograph the birth of their youngest child, Ashley, in August 2008. In her spare time, Alicia is an artist and a blogger, too. I wrote about her pastel work here.
Mike later suggested that we profile the acclaimed and prolific painter, Charles Wildbank. Charles and I have connected through e-mail and Facebook and have become friends. He will be featured in a future issue of Hearing Loss Magazine. I wrote about Charles and his artwork on my blog here. Do check out his work—it is nothing short of stunning!
And finally, Jen’s blogroll listing led me to Ulf’s blog!
I wrote to Ulf and asked if he would be interested in sharing his story with Hearing Loss Magazine readers. With editing and compilation assistance from The King of Texas (who also moonlights as my father, Hershel M. Dyer) and beautiful photos by Anne K. Haga, Ulf’s story—From Silence to Sound: My Quest to Hear Again—is now in print.
Read the full article by clicking on the link here: Ulf Nagel Feature.
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Cindy Dyer's Blog 
A beautiful magazine, professional in every respect, and I am very pleased to have been part of its creation—a part perhaps no bigger than a mustard seed as your grandmother Hester might say, but still a part of the whole.
Moonlighting as your father? Moonlighting?
Being your father has always been and will always be a full time job. All those years since you stubbornly insisted at birth in presenting the soles of your feet to the world first instead of your head, have been a full time job. I will admit, however, although presented last instead of first, your head was beautifully rounded, and certain features such as the temporarily flat noses that were presented by your siblings at birth were absent in your case. The flat noses were caused by the long slide, of course, and soon rebounded.
My moonlighting since then has consisted of incidental tasks such as making a living to keep food on the table and shoes on everybody’s feet, assisting my country in losing two wars—Korea and Vietnam—working overtime to staunch the flow of illegal narcotics and illegal aliens into the US, detouring harmful plants, animals and vegetables away from our fields, cities and tables and documenting the outflow and inflow of US citizens.
Yep, I had a full time job just trying to keep up with you, an effort in which I failed miserably. Six degrees of separation? That leaves some 354 degrees of separation between your mastery of so many varied skills and my success in trying to emulate them, so much separation that I officially surrender.
I give up, but I am exhilarated by the fact that you could not have done any of them without me. I take full credit for your creation—okay, half the credit—okay, okay, let’s just say that I suggested to your mother that we should have a second child—I guess one could say that I planted the seed, so to speak. Of course, I only suggested that to her after she announced that she was again in the family way—folks didn’t use the word pregnancy back in those days—they said in the family way.
Nice work—kudos to you and Barbara for an outstanding publication.
Great article! I’m about to go bilateral and I’m so excited I can’t stand it. There is a huge, huge difference between hearing with 2 hearing aids and hearing with 1 CI – I’m never as exhausted every evening as I was with hearing aids. Being able to communicate really does enhance quality of life in so many ways.
Cindy, it was really fun to read how each ‘connection’ led you to another one — isn’t it funny how life works?! I always enjoy the cover stories and photos in Hearing Loss magazine — you do a beautiful job!
~ Wendi
Thank you, Wendy! I appreciate your comment and I’m happy you enjoy the magazine!