We Got Sandy Allen, What About Tallest Deaf?

Hi readers,

As many of you should know Sandy Allen, the world's tallest living woman recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records, passed away on August 13th of this year. She was living in Shelbyville, Indiana about an hour drive from where I live.


In 1988 when I was a sophmore at Indiana Deaf School she came to give a presentation to the audience. I don't remember exactly what the purpose of her visit was, but hey she was the tallest lady in the world. Very interesting presentation, she shared her child and adulthood experiences with us.

One thing I could remember was she was a very new resident of Indiana after living in Niagara Falls for several years. Before moving to Indiana she was a regular guest or worked at Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum. She decided to have a change of life and work in real working world, that's where she became a secretary at a city or county office in Shelbyville.

Blog author's note...from reading Rita Rose's comment below, I realize I have some errors in this paragraph above so here's the correction from Rita...

Sandy worked as a secretary for the State Veterinarian's Office and the BMV for a few years after high school, then went to work at the GUINNESS Museum of Records in Niagara Falls. When she came back to Indiana she lived in Indy and worked in Mayor Hudnut's office, then at the dept. of Public Works as a secretary. When ber health deteriorated a few years ago, she went to the nursing home in Shelbyville, her hometown.

For the last few years she's been living at a senior citizen home where they have the world's oldest living lady Edna Parker living there too. She's 115 now. I tried to find a picture of Sandy and Edna together but couldn't.

Again thanks to Rita for including this The Shelbyville News photo of Edna Parker and Sandy Allen here.

Now let's talk about Deaf people, do we know of a tallest Deaf person?

Let me tell you who I could think of for now....

Lance Allred at 6'11. Played few games in NBA for Cleveland Cavaliers last season.

As for meeting a tallest Deaf person that I could remember would be Jay Gates, a fraternity brother of mine at college and Willie Brown, a basketball player who tried out for a CBA team Fort Wayne Fury in middle of 1990's. Both are around 6'8.

Now guys, do you know of anyone Deaf that's taller than Lance?

One more thing, any V/Blogger taller than me? I'm at 6'2.

Lane

A Close Call

Hi...I want to tell you about a miracle I had when I was about to drown at young age at a public swimming pool.

First, I will be typing the details in this post this time instead of the optional subtitling. This will cover pretty much what I said in the video. I want to see how this turns out.

Alright, this has to do with a vlog at YouTube I just watched...it was from a Deaf lady named Lisa sharing her story about her one year old daughter Sara that was about to drown in their kiddie swimming pool five years ago. She described how it was a miracle for them, if not for a voice that the mother "heard"...her daughter Sara wouldn't be with us today.

That YouTube vlog made me want to share you all about a miracle I had.

My parents dropped me off at friends' house, they are the deaf sisters both around my age. Their parents were watching me for few hours. They asked us if we wanted to go swimming at a public pool and we went for it.

I didn't know how to swim.

There were lot of hearing kids swimming there too, I would watch them jump/dive in and I figured if they could do it I could too....I jumped in and there came water toying with my tonsil...I still remember it. Tried to paddle myself up but couldn't. I don't know what those deaf sisters were thinking. No one came to me. I remember looking up at the "wavy" water above and the sun shining right through.

Then came a teenage boy into my unforgettable view, he reached and pulled me up.

When I finally grasped for air, I looked to see who it was and ended up it was a deaf guy that I and the deaf sisters didn't know was at the pool too. He didn't have guts to introduce himself to us beforehand.

No CPR, almost.

His name was James Stafford.

Now you see, there were hearing people especially a lifeguard (that probably had his/her eyes elsewhere)allover the pool and the only person to know I was in trouble was that deaf guy. Call that a Miracle? that's a big YES to me. And thank goodness for his eyeballs and sign language.

What's matter with you hearing people?

Few years later at Indiana Deaf School where I started to go to, James was a resident advisor at its dormitory and recognized me. He came up to me and I knew right away it was that guy, he still looked the same after those years. We chatted for a while. Then he would introduce me to his wife and would ask her if she remembered his story on pulling a water-filled little deaf boy out of the pool, she said yeah and looked right at me. I was sorta embarrassed but was thankful that he was there to pull me out.

If not for him, I wouldn't be here doing this vlog. Who knows.

Thank God for Miracles!

That deaf guy passed away in middle of 90's. Thanks James for being there at the right time.

Please watch this YouTube vlog I told you about at the beginning of this post...Deaf Mother Heard A 'Miracle' Voice

You will see that her daughter Sara definitely had more close call than I had, and I am glad to see Sara's still around too.

Take care everyone. Lane

My Pet Peeve Within Deaf Crowd

Subtitles

1 min 23 sec video.

I have this pet peeve within the deaf crowd...what would this be?

Do you feel the same way or is it just me?

I apologize for the dark video, I'll do better with lighting next time.