I Cried On My Way Home

She had already lost her hearing. Now she had lost her sight. All hope was lost. Then her boyfriend figured out how to communicate with her.

I am a sloppy sentimentalist. I cried my way home tonight. It was a story on public radio. I was listening to Radiolab on WNPR. This is the best program on radio!

Radiolab is a documentary series. That’s the simple part. It’s how the documentaries are put together that’s so amazing. I have never witnessed more intricately woven stories.

Everything on Radiolab is happening in sync on multiple levels. A sentence might be started by one person, continued by a second and finished by a third. It works.

The off-center vibe is carefully crafted by the two hosts, Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich. Even their conversation weaves in and out of the interview and actualities.

Today’s show (actually from mid-January) was about Emilie.

In this segment, we take an emotional left turn to a story of a very different kind of lost and found. We begin with a college student, Alan Lundgard, who fell in love with a fellow art student, Emilie Gossiaux. Emilie’s mom, Susan Gossiaux, describes her daughter, and the terrible phone call she recieved from Alan nine months after he became Emilie’s boyfriend. Together, Susan and Alan tell Jad and Robert about the devastating fork in the road that left Emilie lost in a netherworld, and how Alan found her again.

She had already lost her hearing. Now she had lost her sight. All hope was lost. Then her boyfriend figured out how to communicate with her.

Like I said, I cried. It was among the most amazing stories I’ve ever heard.

5 thoughts on “I Cried On My Way Home”

  1. sounds like Usher’s syndrome. Its okay Geoff. Some people were meant to be stronger than average to help bring out the best (or the worst) in people. My grandmother was deaf blind and raised 12 children in the 1930s-40s in Beattyville, Kentucky. Without modern medicine or indoor plumbing. There is always a problem, warrior, a heroine, a cause and a solution.

  2. My 13 year-old daughter and I love to listen to this show, when we heard this episode a few months back, it had us so riveted that we listened twice! I download this podcast and several others to listen to while I’m at work.

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