Sophie had no idea what she was missing, so she had no ability to ask questions. Hearing people learn to question very naturally through being in a hearing environment, but that’s not the case with oral-deaf children. I had to feed her the language and then teach her how to deconstruct it. When I had to teach her the concept ‘Why’, I nearly gave up. When, if ever, would her language snowball?
I continued to listen to her every word, correcting her pronunciation and syntax and making her repeat things correctly. It was difficult to read to her as she was still developing her language – the baby books were actually more her reading level, but she was not interested in those. Her auditory ability did not suit her age. I wondered if she would ever learn to read.
Then a miracle happened when a mysterious parcel arrived addressed to Sophie. It was from Li’s former masseur, Mad Charles, in Houston.
‘Sophie, you got a present!’ I told her.
Sophie tore off the paper, looking at me with wide eyes, wondering. Inside was a complete set of The Adventures of Tintin comic books. Sure, they were all pictures, but Tintin wasn’t a child and the stories that unfolded frame by frame were sophisticated.
I would never have thought to try comics, but I could see that the images with the speech bubbles fascinated her. In fact, she took the books to her room and shut the door. She stayed there for hours, and we soon realised that she had been engrossed for all that time. She absolutely loved the Tintin books. From time to time, we could hear her laughing out loud reading them, and as the pictures told the story, she eventually guessed the words in the speech bubbles. She read them avidly for over a year. It was another milestone and we were beyond happy. She eventually moved on to the Asterix and Obelix series as well.
With Li back in Sydney for the July season, we were both wondering how many more seasons he could manage combined with working in the financial world. Every day I continued to ask myself if I had done enough for Sophie. Every day the answer was still No, there’s more to be done. There were many times when I wished we were an ordinary family without two languages and two cultures, just simple challenges and a husband home every evening. But I knew I had to stop wishing for things that weren’t realistic. I just kept going, day by day, with sheer determination and focus and one goal in mind: I wanted a conversation with my daughter one day. I didn’t want Sophie to be locked into a smaller world. I wanted her to be able to move in both worlds. But I knew that we were racing against her impending puberty.
For now, all I could do was keep on doing what I was doing and wonder what would happen when Li did finally retire. Using my ballet brain again was my saviour. I was now teaching the pre-professional program at Dance World. This was much more to my liking than teaching younger students. Also, three mornings a week and on Monday nights I taught the senior girls at Miss Anna’s Dance Partners studio.
One night, Dom came to babysit and Li and I went out to dinner on the St Kilda foreshore. A rare treat! The days were getting longer and it was such a joy to look out over the bay as the sun went down over a calm and glassy sea. Li poured the wine and said excitedly, ‘Darling, you know what an interesting time it is right now in ANZ Securities history, as well as the stock market.’
I just smiled, waiting for him to go on.
‘ANZ Securities is going through an expansion phase and there’s so much going on.’
‘That’s exciting, Li,’ I said.
‘I don’t think it’s time for me to give up dancing yet, but Mary, can you promise me that you will let me know when it’s time to retire?’
‘Yes, of course.’
The waiter brought our meals to the table. Li continued: ‘I’m starting to meet with some ANZ branch managers who are referring me to customers with investment needs, so my client base is starting to grow quickly. It’s very exciting. I’m learning a lot. It means that when I do retire from ballet, as hard as that will be, we will be okay financially.’
I had to admit, the future did start to feel less scary when I heard him say that. I raised a glass to my brilliant, hardworking husband. ‘It sounds incredible, darling. You can’t continue with dancing and stockbroking forever, though. You know that, don’t you?’
‘Yes,’ Li replied. ‘My injuries are lingering longer now. We’ll know when the time is right.’
For Christmas that year, we stayed with Mum and Dad in their unit on the hill in Brisbane. Neil George was in his element, playing grandad to the now thirteen grandchildren. He and Mum were still devoted to each other. Coralie had always been so caring and attentive to all of us children, and now Dad with his oxygen tank by his chair was the beneficiary of that care. Just as he had poured a Scotch for Mum in Rocky as she sat in her chair after our dinner, now she brought him his beer as he sat in his favourite chair. He loved watching the passing parade of the McKendry children and grandchildren. At any time of the day, Mum would say, ‘Here’s someone!’ and footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs.
Mum had made the apartment beautiful, as she did with everything, with antiques and fine art. Her exquisite taste never left her. Neil George was always preparing for the times ahead, and had his eye on the apartment next door, with a view to someone in the family living in it sometime down the track. I sensed he was anxious about what would happen to Mum when his time was up. We all were. It was truly awful watching him struggle to breathe and speak. Soon he will be in a wheelchair, I thought, and my heart broke for him.
14
For Chinese New Year that year, we decided to visit the Li family and introduce Bridie to them. It would be the first Chinese New Year Li would celebrate in China with his own children.
Li’s family all thought Bridie was the most adorable baby with her porcelain-like skin, which they valued highly. Once again it was a typical visit with so much love, so many gatherings, so much food. And, of course, so many spectacular fireworks, now that they could afford them. It was as though Li wanted to make up for the lack of money in his childhood by ensuring his own children and his brothers’ children enjoyed the festivities. Everybody was caught up in the frenzied noise and excitement, including Sophie. And all the children loved the traditional red money bags.
As always, any concern we had that Chinese might confuse and disrupt Sophie’s language development and progress was superseded by how important we felt it was for her to know her extended Chinese family. As long as she was experiencing the vast and different things the world had to offer, she was also experiencing language visually. This would inevitably broaden her comprehension and expression. Well, that is what I hoped – only time would tell.
Back at school in February it was clear just how far behind everyone else Sophie really was. She still wasn’t comprehending everything and often misunderstood conversations. She couldn’t complete the homework for her year level and the grades were moving on too fast for her. I felt strongly that she needed to repeat Grade 4, as I knew she couldn’t possibly cope with Grade 5. Shelford advised us against it, making me contemplate a move to another school closer to home. After much research we settled on Melbourne Girls Grammar School, which also offered Chinese. Li and I wanted her to have the opportunity to learn his native language. Tom was already learning Mandarin at Melbourne Grammar’s junior school, Grimwade House. I also felt this school would have more resources to help Sophie in her secondary education.