I have a love hate relationship with the face-mask.
Mostly hate.
My Mom is hearing impaired.
She reads lips.
Due to her declining health, she is in hospice care.
Everyone must wear a mask because of the virus.
Mom cannot hear people who wear masks.
Those who lip read like my Mom watch the whole face.
In fact only 30% of speech is comprehended solely from the lips.
Everyone, hearing and non-hearing, uses contextual clues from the uncovered face.
Heck. I’m having a difficult time hearing due to face masks.
Sound is distorted and muffled so much so I cannot understand the speaker.
For my Mom, masks make communication absolutely impossible.
Much to our relief, we were able to be Mom’s interpreter, mask free, through out her stay in hospice.
She passed peacefully with mask free family by her side.
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
backporchstudio.blog 
It is soooo challenging. I lost part of my hearing due to a childhood illness and I too suffer with those masks.
Some innovative people made masks with windows in them. I found this out accidentally recently. 🙂
I’m sorry to hear about your mom’s passing.
Thank you 🙂
Yes! I did see the masks with the windows in them. Since the hospice staff was okay with us not wearing masks with Mom, we were able to interpret and communicate.
Thinking of you
Thank you 🙂
I can so totally relate to this.