When I met my father-in-law he was already quite old. You know the kind of old when a man has decided how he likes things in his life and can't really be made to think anything otherwise. He liked his eggs on toast in the morning, his shirts Hawaiian and he'd tried hearing aids twenty years ago and he wasn't interested in trying them again. After spending our first newlywed visit with my in-laws, much of it either shouting or giving up on him hearing much of our conversations, I went home and clicked away online on sites about hearing aids.

"But they've changed so much since then!" I protested to my husband.

"Nope, he won't go for it," he said, unpacking his suitcase. His dad had tried them all and hated the ringing and the feedback and vowed to never try another one so long as he lived. He'd been unsatisfied with their quality after he'd broken three of them in the course of a year and he'd claimed that he either still couldn't hear all that well with them or he could hear the cat down the street scratch at his litter box.

It wasn't until a visit that they paid to us later when I realized why he'd never get a hearing aid. My mother-in-law, wonderful woman that she is, was making dinner in the kitchen, yammering away about something that she likely felt was terribly important, but was driving the living room crowd insane. My husband and I were sitting on the couch across the room from my father-in-law in the easy chair, when my husband whispered something to me about hanging in there and putting up with the last few days of his mom's visit.

"Good thing I can't make out what she's saying from here!" my father-in-law said chuckling from the easy chair.

He'd heard my husband whispering from across the room, but he couldn't hear his wife from the kitchen. My husband and I snickered at one another and were still laughing that night in bed. We'd often wondered how such a quiet and amiable man could put up with such a high-strung, lightning rod of a woman. He couldn't hear her and he chose not to by not getting a hearing aid. For the sake of their marriage, he kept the woman he loved at a sort of semi-silent volume. When he really wanted to hear what she had to say, he'd ask her to repeat herself. He put up with her in the doses he could handle and when she was too much, he'd let her go on and on, not hearing a thing. It was just too much to handle. Of course, she had to know this was their arrangement. It seemed to work for them.

He could get a hearing aid anytime he wants to. But, in reality this arrangement is perfect for him with all of us. He's significantly older than his wife, which even as a grandfather, makes him an old grandfather for such young grandchildren. The yelps and laughter of young children are a lot for him at his age. It's nice for him to be able to shut his eyes when he's tired of straining to listen, take a nap and then rejoin us when he's ready. Over the years I've learned to appreciate our arrangement and stop shouting when he's stopped straining to hear.

Learn more about this author, Rachel Mcclain.
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