It was a case of too much noise and too much pride. Mr. Lawrence, owner of Lawrence Air Systems, spent years installing and repairing heating and ventilation units in noisy mills and workshops. But a "Superman mentality" to work without ear protection took its toll.

Over the years the words started to fade into the background noise. He struggled to keep up his end of conversations, and around 10 years ago the silence took over completely.

His deafness affected every aspect of his life. Unable to read lips while he drove, car rides with his wife became empty hours. He stopped going dancing with his wife, stopped going to the movies, plays, concerts. Family parties became painful experiences.

Work was even worse. Mr. Lawrence employs his three sons and leaned on all of them. Brian, Jason and Aaron made phone calls for their father, translated conversations with clients and couldn't help from getting frustrated.

"I was the guy who was always working with him," Jason said, "so we always rode together, not talking. It's tough when you can't communicate. It makes everything really tough. We had our own sign language-thing going. It was homemade."

Mr. Lawrence tried hearing aids — plenty of them — but they all failed. For two weeks he'd use them and then throw them into a desk drawer when finally he became so angered with their inability to cure his deafness.

The low point came on Dec. 27, 2003. Mr. Lawrence had imagined what his daughter's wedding would be like, especially the father-daughter dance, but deafness turned his special moment sour.

"She picked a song for the dance with me and I couldn't hear anything," he said. "I told her she was going to have to lead. I couldn't even hear the beat."

The frustration continued for another few months, only broken by a phone call from Mr. Lawrence's primary care physician. He suggested a Cochlear Implant, where a small device was placed between the skin and the skull on the back of the head. A small receptor was placed inside the ear, replacing damaged anatomy.

Mr. Lawrence had the surgery in Worcester, Mass., by Dr. Daniel J. Lee, and he noticed the results two weeks later.

"The audiologist went through these tones, and then she said 'Can you hear me?' I heard it as clear as a bell. My wife started talking to me, and I could hear her. She was bawling her eyes out," Mr. Lawrence said.

The return of sound has been music to everyone's ears.

"It's unbelievable," Jason said. "He can hear the grandkids. I mean, I have three kids he'd never heard before."

"It's true," Mr. Lawrence said. "Brandon (Jason's 8-year-old son) was talking to me and I was talking back. He just stopped and he hugged me. He knew that that's how it was going to be from now on."

Shadowed

Mr. Lawrence was actually injured on the job because of his hearing loss. He said he was working on site at a factory when a piece of sheet metal slid off a rack and hit him. He said he couldn't hear the metal coming, and only saved himself from further injury when he noticed a shadow from the metal heading his way.

Cochlear implant

* cochlearnetwork.com

* soundsoflifecenter.com

* cochlear.com

* bionicear.com