At age 91, my mother finally got hearing aids.

It wasn’t the well-reasoned arguments that my sisters and I espoused, such as:

 Hearing loss is strongly linked to dementia and cognitive decline, and that hearing aids may help slow this by keeping the brain engaged.

Or that hearing aids can help maintain relationships and support active participation in family and community life.

Or that good hearing is critical for detecting warnings like sirens, alarms, or someone calling out in an emergency.

It didn’t even motivate her when we told her today’s hearing aids are small, inconspicuous, and high-tech—they can adjust automatically, reduce background noise, and even connect to phones and TVs.

You might wonder what inspired her to agree to a hearing test and ultimately purchase hearing aids.

It turns out her 90-year-old sister Jeanette purchased her own pair. My Aunty Jean and her husband Al attended a local seminar to learn about today’s hearing aids. That motivated my aunt to schedule a hearing test and try a pair for a week to see how she liked them.

She loved them. Even before she received them, she loved the fact that the audiologist’s office was two minutes from her home.

My Aunty Jean says, “Uncle Al doesn’t have to shout anymore; he can talk normally, and I can hear him.”

She says if she is in a restaurant and it is too loud; she just takes out her cell phone to adjust the volume. She commented that she is hearing things she never heard before, like creaks in her floorboards.

But the best part, she says, is, “It’s just great to be out in public with other humans and to hear them.”

I can see how positive feelings about their own hearing aid experience from someone my mother loves and trusts, her sister, would tip the scales in favor of giving hearing aids a chance.

Prior to my mother’s audiologist appointment, I shared a list of questions that she could ask the doctor, about the extent of her own hearing loss, the cost, coverage, and ongoing maintenance of hearing aids, and which ones might be right for her.

It turns out my mother had an 80 dB hearing loss. A hearing threshold of 80 decibels means a person can only hear sounds that are louder than 80 dB. Everyday sounds like normal conversation are about 60 dB, and the sound of a vacuum cleaner is 70 dB. A hearing loss rating of 80 typically refers to a profound hearing loss.

Hearing aids were certainly in order.

I was telling my 80-year-old friend that my 91-year-old mom would be getting hearing aids. My friend said, “I hope your mom is good with technology.” I asked her why, and she explained all the controls for her hearing aids would be on her cell phone.

My only experience with hearing aids was with my father-in-law many years ago. He was constantly fidgeting with the controls on the hearing aids themselves, and all of us invariably heard the high-pitched whistling and squealing sound that occurred when he was out of adjustment.

My mom is now a hearing aid superstar. We call her on the cell phone versus her home phone because the cell phone audio goes directly into my mother’s hearing aids for a crystal-clear connection.

When I asked my mom if I could write this article about her, I asked her if there was anything she didn’t like about hearing aids. She explained that she would speak with her hairdresser about a new hairstyle. She wants to grow her hair a bit longer to cover the wire and dome that fits inside her ear.

If there is one thing I have learned from my mom and her sister, it is that no matter what your age, better hearing can reconnect you to the world around you—conversations, laughter, the birds singing, and life itself.