DEAR ABBY: Please help. My husband of 52 years is going deaf, but he refuses to get a hearing aid. He claims we don't have the money. (Not true.) I have to tell him everything two or three times, and it's making me crazy. Sometimes he'll misquote something our pastor said in church, and I have to tell him he heard it wrong. What can I do? -- LOSING MY SANITY IN GEORGIA
DEAR LOSING YOUR SANITY: When the senses begin to erode, it is not uncommon for the person to go into denial. Contact your husband's doctor, explain what's going on and tell him or her that your husband needs to be evaluated by an audiologist. At his next annual physical, his doctor should refer him to one. That's when you should assert yourself and not let him "forget" the appointment.
A hearing aid may -- or may not -- be the solution to your husband's problem, but the cost of a hearing aid would be a small price to pay to save your sanity.