How Fortell Helped Libby Rewrite Her Retirement Story

Retirement is supposed to be the time when the world opens up. A long-awaited chapter dedicated to traveling, taking classes, writing that book you've always wanted to finish, and saying "yes" to new adventures. Libby, a retiree splitting her time between Sarasota and New York City, was ready to dive into it all: fiction writing workshops, fitness classes, French lessons, and global travel.

But as she stepped into this exciting phase, her long-standing hearing loss continued to throw up frustrating roadblocks. She had worn hearing aids for over twenty years, cycling through multiple premium brands and upgrading every four years in a constant, hopeful search for something better. 

It wasn't until she discovered Fortell that she finally found the key to unlocking the connected and active retirement she had always envisioned.

Seeking clarity, not just volume

After decades with hearing aids, Libby was well-versed in their shortcomings. The issue was never a lack of volume — it was a decline in her ability to distinguish and understand speech.

In group settings, especially when people spoke quickly, conversations became incomprehensible. In her weekly fiction writing workshop, she couldn't understand one man in the group at all and often found herself nodding along, unable to fully participate in discussions or keep pace with discussion. She relied heavily on lip-reading, scrambled for seats at the very front of classrooms, and had to constantly remind people: "I'm hearing disabled, please look at me when you speak."

The limitations rippled to nearly every corner of her life. She stopped going to her local recreation center's exercise classes because she was afraid of missing a cue and distracting others. Foreign language classes felt impossible to follow. At restaurants, background music and chatter made it impossible to connect with her friends. At the theater, she depended on a telecoil and sought out hearing-impaired performances instead of standard shows. Traveling, once a joy, increasingly brought more anxiety than excitement.

"All I ever hoped for was for my hearing not to get worse.”

Beneath all of it ran a deeper fear. Libby had watched her own mother lose the ability to hear music entirely. Libby knew hearing loss was simply the card she'd been dealt. "No one goes through life untouched," she'd come to accept. "My thing is hearing." But what she desperately hoped to hold onto was the ability to keep hearing beautiful sounds and music above all else. "All I ever hoped for was for my hearing not to get worse,” she said. 

New hope with Fortell hearing aids

The breakthrough she had been searching for arrived the day she tried Fortell AI Hearing Aids.

Before her appointment, Libby tamped down her expectations, afraid that too much hope would only lead to disappointment. "Even if I hear a little more, it's something," she remembers thinking. 

But rather than the incremental improvement she was used to upon trying new hearing aid models, Fortell felt like a completely different listening experience. "There's no comparison. It's completely different from my other hearing aids — not even in the same playing field."

The very same day she received her Fortell AI Hearing Aids, she sat in her writing circle. For the first time, she could understand everyone around her. Where past hearing aids had simply amplified everything, Fortell drew voices forward while pulling back the surrounding noise. 

"There's no comparison. It's completely different from my other hearing aids — not even in the same playing field."

Living retirement to the fullest

Today, the constant reminders of hearing loss throughout the day have been replaced by a sense of freedom. "The wonder of Fortell has worn off," she said. "Now it feels natural and just part of my life."

The changes show up in a dozen ways every day. She no longer has to ask people to look at her when they speak. A close friend recently paused at dinner to remark, "I can tell you can hear because you used to look at my mouth when I spoke and you're not doing that anymore." 

She's back in the rhythm of the rec center's fitness classes, and she no longer needs a telecoil or a special accommodated performance to enjoy the theater. She's taken up French lessons online, working through a course she never could have managed before. And the biggest adventure is still ahead: an ambitious eight-week trip to Asia — a journey she's now planning with genuine excitement rather than the anxiety that once would have held her back. 

For Libby, Fortell didn't just improve her hearing. It gave her back the life she never imagined she’d have again. 

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