I am married, and I have a 2 year old daughter. I have been deaf since my birth because of the German measles contracted by my mother. My parents realized I was deaf when I was one and a half. They got me a hearing aid and took me to speech therapy in Padova. I still have a hearing aid at the moment, and I speak well. I am able to communicate with hearing people, but sometimes it is hard for me to understand them properly. In my family, I am the only deaf person. I have a younger brother but we can't communicate well because each of us has his own way to follow. I would like to have a sister with whom to chat about everything!

In 1990, I started to go out with deaf friends. I had just ended my studying. I have an accountancy degree. I attended the same schools as the hearing students attended, and I had to make a lot of sacrifices to study and communicate with my schoolmates. One time, during the scholastic year, I went out with my hearing friend. I saw a childhood deaf friend whom I knew at the speech therapist's office in Padova. After that, I lost contact with her for a certain time and didn't see her. But when I was finishing my study, I called to see her. She introduced me to her deaf friends. At the beginning, I was shy. I spoke a little because I couldn't understand when they spoke, and they couldn't understand me because I spoke in a fast way and used difficult words. I then enrolled in a full-time computer course thanks to a scholarship. I studied for three months with other deaf students to get the certificate and to attend a work program to get work experience. Those three months were a good experience for me because I learned to use sign language and to communicate with them.

I would like you to tell me about your life as I did. Perhaps we can exchange movies about deaf club meetings. How do you celebrate Chrismastime? I would like to see the beauty of your town! I would also like to know how you live among your deaf community. That is, do you have a government salary every month to help you buy technical aids, such as a computer, mobile telephone, fax, television... Are your TV programs captioned? Can you go to discos, cinemas, and museums without paying as we the Italian deaf do? What do you think about? Come on! Let's have new friendships to know each other better and to learn new languages and experiences!!! It should be very nice...I should be so happy! I like to receive a lot of mail from all over the world!!! Ah, I was just about to forget....my favorite hobbies are: surfing on the Internet, photography (I simply adore it!), and travelling around the world. I don't like to practice sports because I am lazy, but I try to go to the gym to lose weight and to exercise. I practice swimming, handball, and soccer. I am able to ski and ice skate. I would like to ride a horse, but here in my town, there are no schools to learn riding, and it isn't convenient for me to commute.

It would be great if I could exchange some emails with other deaf mothers in Italy.