Page 24 - Amarillo Senior Link Magazine Winter 2020- Online Magazine

In 1976, Daddy became a licensed cooked a big breakfast daily and had
hearing aid audiologist; Mom
followed the next year, getting her
license so they could work together.
They bought the Beltone office in
1978. In their business operations,
Mom spent endless hours doing the
book work, credit checks, organizing
details in the business. When Mom
and Dad began their adventures in
the world of hearing care, Daddy
went into homes to perform hearing
tests, and Mom kept the office
operating, doing service work to
hearing aids and managing the
bookkeeping. Since computers and
cell phones were not yet available,
Mom used her adding machine. My
brother (Carl Wampler) comments
that he can’t think of anyone else
who could move their fingers so
quickly on a manual adding machine
and have accurate figures. She
ALWAYS balanced the checkbooks
to the penny and taught us how
to do that, too. I don’t remember
them ever hiring a bookkeeper or a
CPA until the later years, when their
hearing aid business grew so fast.
She raised two children, kept a
home, made most of our clothes,
Patient Arthur DeHart, and
Polly with Bob Wayland, Mayor of
Plainview (Better Hearing Month
declared in Plainview c. 1980)
24 Amarillo Senior Link
her desk at home, keeping records of
a Tupperware box full of sandwiches Daddy’s sales and keeping up with
for us to eat at “the store” for lunch. our clients.
She always bought raffle tickets
and played dominoes at the Senior The diagnosis of ALS in Daddy came
Citizens Center. The purchase of the in 2006, and at that time, I became
Lubbock Beltone territory included fully licensed, working closely with
travel. They drove many miles for them until Daddy’s death in 2009.
service: Snyder, Colorado City, We were working with Randy King
Paducah, Tulia, Farwell and east to as we opened Grand Hearing Center,
McAdoo. They purchased an RV with an office again in Plainview.
to take on the road, so they could Mom traveled with me to that tiny
be out among their communities little office space, and we tested
several nights during the month. hearing and serviced hearing aids,
Daddy bought Mom a small RV with her again being the “smile”
bicycle so she could get out in the at the front door for me. She has
evenings and “wiggle her legs”, and helped us grow our business, and
she even took along her RV-sized we now have two operating offices,
sewing machine to occupy those in Lubbock and Plainview, servicing
evenings when the day had ended, more than 1400 clients. Mom has
and work ceased. chosen to retire from working the
office in Lubbock, but on occasion,
Mom enjoyed being in small she will fill in during our absence.
business; it allowed her to share She still hands out cards at church
her biggest joy, her grandchildren, and talks to her friends about why
with her clients. She always had they need to have their hearing
photos close by to show how they checked.
were growing and was excited to I can now begin to tell you why I feel
tell of the newest activity they were
involved in. Sports, drama, choirs, she is a Wonder Woman Mother.
band performances, Boy Scouts, I watched as she was a caregiver
and art exhibits are just a few events to her parents in their retirement
she would brag on. When we got years and how she so lovingly
the diagnosis of our son’s deafness cared for my Dad’s mother who
when he was three, Mom and Dad had Alzheimer’s. I have witnessed
were there with a new set of hearing my mother make a casserole, with
aids for him, and both, promptly the last bit of ingredients from
and without hesitation, joined us our house, for someone who just
in ASL (American Sign Language) came home from the hospital, and
classes because that is how he would take beautiful roses made from the
be learning in his school classes. She ribbons on a funeral bouquet to the
still has current pictures at her desk grieving family. Mom is the one
to show off the grandchildren, their who calls to find out how others are
spouses, and now their babies! feeling, just because she hasn’t heard
from them lately, and who carefully
I joined them in business in 1996, remembers to send out birthday
and a few years later, they decided and sympathy cards to express love.
it was time to retire, so they merged Mom will be the first to admit that
their Wampler Hearing Services it isn’t her doing these things; it is
with another audiology group in Jesus working His life through her
Lubbock. Daddy and I continued to because she doesn’t “have that kind
work together, and Mom still had of energy” on her own.