When Ann Hall has something to say, she covers a hole in her neck to speak.
After a laryngectomy, removal of the voice box because of cancer, she breathes through the opening and also speaks through it using a special tool. She has learned to live with the disability, hardly dropping a beat in her community service work with the Everett Elks.
Born in 1949 in Everett, Hall was 15 when she started occasionally smoking with her best friend.
“We thought it was sophisticated and rebellious, and of course there was the element of danger because we did not want our parents to catch us,” Hall said “We felt invincible and bulletproof like many teens.”
As a college student, she continued to smoke, and married Keith Hall, who also was a smoker. The couple quit now and then, but for one reason or another began smoking again.
“We were happy and busy with our lives and then cancer struck in September of 2001,” she said. “My voice had become horse and soft and I strained to talk.”
After the cancer diagnosis, she had radiation. Both quit smoking.
By March 2002, she had almost recovered from the effects of the radiation, but Keith, 55, collapsed from heart problems attributed to smoking and died on March 6.
“Throughout the summer and fall my voice volume decreased and I had trouble swallowing again. I often went to Ray’s Drive In for a chocolate milkshake to ease the soreness of my throat.”
Doctors removed her larynx. She uses a tube inserted on the side of hole, or stoma, to communicate. Hall coughs frequently to expel mucus.
“Because I insert my thumb in my stoma to produce speech, my hands need to be clean and my right hand that I ‘talk’ with needs to be empty to vocalize,” Hall said. “My normal routine is to go for a walk in the morning. Sometimes strangers will ask for directions and in the winter I have to remove a glove to speak. I never used to talk with my hands but now I literally do.”
Other challenge she faces are having no sense of smell. She has some sense of taste, especially spicy foods, but still relies on memory and texture for enjoyment since a lot of taste involves smell.
Few of the handicaps slow her down.
She was the Exalted Ruler of Everett Elks No. 479, the first woman Ruler at the Everett Lodge, before her surgery, and has been both the state Elk and Ruler of the Year. Hall helped start the Student of the Month program, is the state vocational grant chairman and works diligently for youth programs, scholarships and vocational grants.
Hall was a finalist this week for a United Way Spirit Award. She was nominated by an Elks Past Exalted Ruler, Jeanne Estie, who said at the club, they call Hall “Miss Everything” because of all her projects.
“She is the strongest woman I have every known,” Estie said. “There isn’t anything she can’t do.”
When Ann Hall covers the hole in her throat to talk, the sound is machinelike and raspy.
“I tire easily if I have to talk a lot, but that keeps me brief and to the point. I usually weigh my spoken words carefully. I have an Elks friend who claims to be Irish and says he is required to say a minimum number of words per day. I tell him that I am Norwegian and we are only allowed so many words per day, and I have just about used up my allotment.”
She said she loves it when telemarketers call her and say she sounds terrible so they will call back.
“Sometimes they barely hear me and hang up in frustration. When someone is hard of hearing or in a noisy or crowded setting, it is almost impossible to hear me. The upside is that when I talk, people have to be attentive.”
Other challenges include acid reflux from scar tissue caused by radiation. She has trouble sleeping more than four hours at a time.
“I wake up and must sit up to make the symptoms more bearable. Lifting heavy objects poses problems since I am unable to lock up my larynx to get that extra oomph.”
The positives are that she can no longer snore or talk in her sleep. Family members joke that it’s a blessing she can no longer sing. Her two children and four grandchildren live in this area and they enjoy spending time together.
When Hall first had a laryngectomy, she wanted to stay home and hide.
“I was afraid of being a freak,” Hall said. “Eventually I recognized that I would feel better if I continued to do the things I enjoy, like volunteering.”
Elks, and the Everett community, benefit from her diligence.
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.
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