"He signed to me: 'my name is Derek, what's yours?' And I signed back to him 'my name is Michelle'."
Michelle's story is about finding love against all the odds. Michelle learnt sign language to help her communicate better with her partner.
I was so nervous the first day I went to my new day-care centre in Newcastle.
When I arrived, the carer took me to room 4 and asked me where I'd like to sit. Then all of a sudden, I heard someone shout, like Ghuh! I turned around and there was a deaf man sitting playing cards all on his own. Well, I knew a bit of sign language, as I'd been to college to learn, so I understood what he was trying to say to me: 'you can sit here', so I went to sit by him. He signed to me: 'my name is Derek, what's yours?' And I signed back to him 'my name is Michelle'. We played cards together till lunchtime, when Derek signed to me: 'you can sit with me for lunch if you like' . He made me feel really welcome and when the ambulance came for me, he stood and waved me goodbye. Later that week he invited me to his house for a cuppa tea. He kept asking me to go back to his house day after day. That made me really happy. In the evenings we'd eat together at my house and learn a bit of sign language and see how we could communicate better. Sometimes we'd sing together in sign language to make it more fun. We really enjoyed being together and soon we got engaged. A couple of weeks later, at about 6 in the morning I was in bed when I heard this knocking at the door. I thought to myself, 'who is that at this time?' It was Derek, standing there with his suitcase. He signed to me 'if it's OK with you I've come to live with you'. I was shocked, but it was a good idea! Everywhere we go now, we go together and everyone says we are so well matched. We really love each other and at the end of every day Derek will come to me and say 'you're my baby, I love you' and I tell him how much I love him. | 
