Fairytales do come true Even in 2021
“One day when I’m twelve years old, I will be like all the other girls in my class.” I look at my six year-old. How can I tell her that it will never be the case. She’s just started Grade 1 and it’s tough. She’s the only deaf child in the school. With the help of the huge hearing aids behind each ear she can hear about 20% of normal speech. (And only when there’s no background noise.) Some sounds she simply can’t hear. She relies heavily on lip-reading and basically has to guess what the other person is saying. She often gets it wrong, much to the amusement of the other girls in school. “What’s wrong with her?”, a precocious classmate asks me. For once I’m grateful that my daughter can’t hear.
for Jane, small little fairy gifts, delicate illustrations. An artist in the making.
There was bullying, certainly. She’d come home in tears. No friends. No invites to parties. If you’re different, you don’t belong. I recall seeing her on the playground, completely on her own. Concerts, school tours, swimming galas - torture. Imagine life going on around you and you’re always a few steps behind, not quite knowing what’s going on, desperately trying to keep up. People treating you as if you’re stupid. As parents, we felt helpless. You can’t force children to play with your child. We lived in Johannesburg at the time. We were told that she would only ever be able to pick up one language - if she’s really intelligent. We changed our home language from Afrikaans to English. Yes, we were criticised for that.
I’m a mother so of course I think my daughter’s illustrations are great. Luckily my customers feel the same. Jana started with greeting cards, then a stationery range. All original, unique and magical like the fairy that saved her a long time ago. I sit back in amazement as she comes up with more creative ideas. Illustrations on velvet bags. Velvet cushions are next. Today the shy little girl helps me run Amulet. Confident and able. Granted, the masks make it incredibly difficult to hear. Little Jane designs is spreading its wings.
It didn’t get better. Girls get nastier the older they get. Maybe we should move to Worcester and enroll her in the school for the deaf? But how would we earn a living? (This was long before the days of working from home and we were actors, not exactly in demand.) One morning, Jana came running to me. She showed me a hand-written note that had been left on her bedside table underneath a small pebble. It came from Jane, a fairy. But Jane was like no other fairy. She was deaf too. Without any friends and incredibly lonely. “ Dear Jana, will you be my friend, please?” My daughter’s life changed. She and Jane wrote to each other every day. She could hardly wait to wake up in the morning to read Jane’s note. They would share their heartbreak and tell each other about hurtful comments and nasty girls. Jane was a fairy with practical advice and she saved my child. You can’t change other people, but you can change your attitude. Jana was now living in her own world. And because she had a best friend, the rest didn’t matter. She started creating. Miniature clothes
Fast forward to Jana’s matric year. Two bi-lateral cochlear implants later. She was the top Student in the Province in Art and Graphic Design. She even passed Afrikaans. In a mainstream, bilingual school, Hermanus High. Yes, in 2008 we moved here. Not because of the crime in Gauteng, but because we wanted to give our daughter a fighting chance.
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2020. Lockdown. Amulet closed. Unemployed. And Little Jane Designs was born. (Even though the letter- writing has stopped, Jane is still around.)
Saturdays she can be found at the Hermanus Country market and Sundays at the Dorp Street Market in Stellenbosch. And the wonder of Instagram. No words needed. The pictures do the talking. Being different makes you strong. Being different forces you to come up with alternative plans. And in today’s world, being different makes you stand out from the rest. Fly, Little Jane, fly.
