Minnesota musicians find love through cochlear implants

MINNEAPOLIS — It’s a story with a very unexpected ending, between a guitar player and a clarinet player who are hard of hearing. 

A medical device brought the two musical strangers into harmony in more ways than one.

It’s a story that starts with a girl who loved music, yet couldn’t quite hear.

“It was difficult in school. I think it affected my learning, my self-esteem, but I didn’t want anybody to know I had hearing loss,” Marcia Norwick said.

But Norwick played on.

“I struggled with words, but not with music,” she said.

She wore hearing aids for years until she heard about cochlear implants. The electronic devices carry noise past the damaged part of the ear straight to the hearing or cochlear nerve.

Her results were so good, her audiologist asked her to convince someone else he needed an implant, too.

“She asked me if I would be interested in talking with her father-in-law and I said, ‘Certainly.’ So I gathered all my materials and it was all business,” Norwick said.

Mike Mullins was a music lover, too, and then his hearing hit a fever pitch, too.

“I turned to one of my brothers and I said, ‘The flute is off-key.’  And he listened a while longer and he said, ‘No, no she isn’t,’ and the longer I listened and continued to check, of course she was right where she should be,” Mullins said.

Afraid of hearing bad news, he put off getting help, relying on his wife to navigate life.

“She became my ears. She did my hearing for me,” Mullins said.

When he lost his wife, he lost his way.

“My sons and grandkids and then my daughter-in-law who is an audiologist and they knew there was a solution and so they pushed me,” he said.

He got implants and started taking classes with Norwick. They bonded over their hardware and their music.

“Not hearing causes many people not to be able to engage in the things that they love doing,” Mullins said. “I am doing the things I love doing and it’s the implant that has caused that to happen.”

Partners in implant education, they are now partners in life, hoping others will listen to their story.

“It’s OK to have your hearing checked and it’s OK to wear hearing aids and it’s OK to hear and to admit that you can’t hear,” Mullin said.

“The implant, it’s given you your life back,” Norwick said to Mullins. “It certainly was a win-win-win.”

Cochlear implants are an option only for people with severe hearing loss.