Late Deafened Loss

Today I had lunch with a dear friend. This person is late deafened, which is a different type of hearing loss than I have. Our listening needs are very different, even though we are both hearing impaired. Before meeting, she requested that I pick a restaurant that is quiet. Aside from meeting well pass the busy noon crowd, I tried to think of a suitable place that would allow us easy listening, free of distractions. The cozy restaurant I chose was anything but quiet. Though just 8 people present, their voices were loud, reverberating against the hard surfaces - the walls, the floor, the ceiling. While this doesn't bother me, it did impeed my friend from hearing me adequately. People who have had good hearing, then lose it in later life, tend not to beable to read lips (or "speech read" to be politically correct). It was a struggle but we did have a nice lunch catching up the best we could with the 4 hearing impaired ears between us!