Reply #4: My dad has decided that he can hear best using the speakerphone

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So i get to hear both sides of the conversations he has with his elderly, hard-of-hearing friends.

One day, someone misdialed, looking for "George"

"Is George there?"

"It's Charlie!"

"George?"

"Who's this?"

"This is Edna - is this George?"

"Who's George?"

I intervened, informed the caller she had the wrong number, hung up, and explained to my dad that he didn't know the caller, it was a wrong number, looking for George.

I've also had to learn to identify when he doesn't know what I'm talking about, since he often thinks (or pretends) that he understands what I'm saying when he doesn't. Recently someone sent gourmet chocolates to the neighbors when they were on vacation, and the neighbors called and asked me to go get them and refrigerate them until they came home. Later, they called my dad to say they would be over to pick them up. Even though I told him about the whole story, you would have thought I was explaining the reason for the collapse of the mortgage market to a second grader. My dad kept saying "but how did we end up with any chocolate?"

This guy regularly juggles money (correctly) between checking accounts and IRAs, and pays bills, so I know he's still sharp, he's just deaf.