[Doug]: Welcome to episode 18 of Feeling Through Live. Today, we're talking about a deafblind love story, and I'm joined by the couple Divya and Jeremy who are engaged. There are a couple who is deafblind, and we're going to be talking today about their love story and not only the details of it, but also why it's important for other people to hear about a deafblind love story. So before we jump into things, I'd love for my guests today to just quickly introduce themselves. So starting with Divya, who again, if you were, if all of you were on last night, you would have saw, saw her on The Feeling Through Experience live stream, but Divya, can you briefly introduce yourself to everyone who's tuning in?
[Divya]: Hello there everyone. My name is Divya Goel and I'm from Florida and I have a special type of usher syndrome called H A R S 3. And also I am the vice president of DBCA, which stands for the DeafBlind Citizens in Action. And we are a social action committee.
[Doug]: And, Jeremy, can you briefly introduce yourself to everyone?
[Jeremy]: Hello everyone. My name is Jeremy and I am from South Florida. I also have Usher syndrome type one D and I primarily use tactile communication, but I can see some, so I am also a member of DBCA as well. Thank you.
[Doug]: Great. Well, thanks for those introductions. And again, we're going to get into your love story very soon, but before we do that, I'd love to hear from each one of you, just a little bit more backstory, a little bit more about your lives prior to meeting each other. So Divya, I'd love to start with you. If you could just tell everyone, give everyone a little bit more information and context about what your life was like before you met Jeremy.
[Divya]: This is Divya. Before I met Jerem, well, let me start with, I originally grew up in Canada. I was born and raised there with my entire family is hearing. We moved to the US specifically to Florida to start a new life. Many years later, I started getting more involved with deafblind individuals. I started learning more from leaders that were out there, and I learned more about deafblindness and I was really interested in leading in reaching my goals. So I got more involved. I went to more events specifically here in Florida with those events. And then eventually I met Jeremy. But before I met Jeremy. You know, I didn't know anything about him. I was socializing with other people who were deafblind . You know, I focused on my life specifically school in college and was continuing with that until I eventually met Jeremy.
[Doug]: And, can you tell me a little bit about what your primary cultural influences were growing up?
[Divya]: This is Divya. I am from a traditional Indian family and have traditional Indian heritage, and I have a strong connection with Indian culture. It's a part of, I do feel so much different now that I've had the American experience. But I do have that strong relationship. You know, it is, it is different. You know, Indian culture is much different in that they have, let's say an arranged marriage, whereas American culture, you can marry whoever you want. So those are some of the difference, cultural differences between Indian culture and American culture.
[Doug]: Was an arranged marriage ever anything that was talked about for you? Or is that something that you ever encountered personally?
[Divya]: Divya is nodding, yes. It's difficult to accept that because for me, I was nervous. You don't know who the individual is, you don't know them well. Um, and you don't know what's going to happen. You know, you don't know their personality, their background, all the ins and outs about them. So for me, it was, I was a little bit less comfortable with, I was nervous, especially for communication because communication for me is a top priority. It is critical. I need to make sure that person understands me and I understand them because, you know, for instance, my hearing family I'm used to them, but, and we have communication sorted out. But for someone new, it's difficult, it's difficult to make sure we have that communication, which can present barriers. So communication obviously is the key and is very important in my life. It's the key to happiness as well. You know, you, can't just sort of cook communication aside and deal with being unhappy because you can't talk about it. It could lead to even depression. Those are not healthy things. And those are not good things to necessarily have in your life. If let's say this person is the same as me and really understands where I'm coming from and I can understand them. And we had clear communication and knowing that I am deafblind and all the other ins and outs, you know, that would be something that's very good and that's something I wanted. I wanted happiness and I wanted to be able to clearly communicate with my partner. You know, I don't want to have to worry about what's going on. I can't communicate. Can I believe this person, can we have clear communication? That's not something I wanted for my life. I wanted to make sure I have an understanding with that individual. I wanted to have success in my future, and I just decided that wasn't for me. And that all happened before I met Jeremy. And for me, I wasn't ready for me. I wasn't ready to go ahead with that.
[Doug]: Yeah, no, thanks for sharing that. You know, it's interesting. Um, there's a new show on Netflix called Indian Matchmaker that I've actually watched very recently. So it's interesting when you mentioned arranged marriages. I literally just recently checked out this show for the first time, like the other night. So it was just interesting timing for that topic to come up. But, I'd love to move over to Jeremy for a moment, but before I do that, for those of you who are just tuning in, today, we're talking about a deafblind love story. Um, and not only the details of it, but why it's important to share a deafblind love story with other people and for other people to know about a deafblind story. So part of that is getting as many people to tune in today as possible. We're still really early on the episode. So if you're watching on Facebook, please hit the share button so That other people can join us today. And if you're watching on YouTube, feel free to share that link with anyone you think might find this interesting today. So, great. Continuing on here. Jeremy I'd love, if you could tell everyone a little bit more about what your life was like before meeting Divya.
[Jeremy]: And this is Jeremy. Before, you know, I know I was very young. I was still like a team. Um, I didn't know about various issues. I didn't know about the deafblind community. It wasn't until later that I did, it was really after graduation.
[Jeremy]: And I was dealing with the feeling of isolation. I was frustrated that I couldn't find a job and you know, this is all back. Like 10 years ago, I was still a student as a student at Conklin Center for DeafBlind and that's in Daytona Daytona beach, Florida. So I was there trying to learn to be independent from the blind program. And the supervisor of the program asked if I was interested in going to Helen Keller Awareness Festival, and just socializing with other deafblind individuals. And it was something that I thought about and decided that I was actually interested in it. So I went to Orlando and when I got there, I went into a restaurant and it was like a big conference room almost. And I had never really seen that before in my life. It was my first time. And I was able to actually look around and see people communicating tactilely, really see lots of deafblind people communicating with each other. And I mean, at the time I was very quiet and shy. I didn't have a lot of experience with that. I didn't know about that blindness. So I actually was there that I was introduced to Divya. You know, I introduced myself. I was like, my name is Jeremy Best. And did he actually sat down with me? She was very excited. Um, she was happy to talk with me cause I think she knew that I didn't know what to do in that setting. So she was happy to talk to me and tell me what to do, you know? And she, we talked about like our oldest friends in our lives and growing up, and it was like a great connection.
[Jeremy]: And really the takeaway from that was how did your sort of upon herself to help introduce me to other deafblind individuals? Because Divya was more familiar with that. She had already been to Helen Keller National Center and not something that I was thinking about myself. I thought about it for like two years. And I was like, you know what, maybe I go, maybe I won't. So two years later I ended up going, it was like November of 2014. And I went, I became a student of Helen Keller, but I was still quiet at the time and I was shy and I didn't really have the deafblind identity yet. You know, I was meeting all these people who are deafblind . I was getting training. I was there for nine months. And finally, once I left, I knew what it meant. I had that deafblind identity. And I really had like an increased independence. I knew more about tactile communication and braille and deafblind social socialization. And it was great. And later on, we had the YASP, which is the Young Adults Summer Program, which is supposed to Helen Keller National Center. And I was brought on as a mentor. I got to work with Divya again, she was facilitating this. Then again later, like two years after that, you know, in little increments here and there, we started communicating, we're text messaging with each other, and I'm starting to think that I actually liked Divya. And then I think later on in 2017, I went to Universal Studios with Divya in Orlando. We were together, you know, my niece was with us. She was guiding us and we were just taking in the sights and I was joking with Divya. We were having a grand old time laughing with each other. We were very independent. It was a great day. And to this day, I consider that to be our first date. You know, later that night we went out to a restaurant, we chatted, we were joking again. I was trying my best to make Divya laugh. And I had given her a gift, which I thought was pretty nice. You know? And then later, a year after that, we went to the Transition Institute for Young Adults who are DeafBlind, and their families are welcome to go in as well. And that was hosted in Tennessee.
[Jeremy]: And I was a mentor. I was involved in different activities with the teens and the approach parents. And I got to talk about how I learned about what it means to be deafblind, to encourage the participants, to seek that identity of themselves and see what it means for them. So thinking about work, all sorts of things, then three days later, we met, you know, Divya's second mom, Emily. And we had a video that was talking about her retirement. There was like 150 people watching that and I got to see the whole program. You know, there were interpreters there as well as SSPs and volunteers. And I was surprised, you know, of course I was a little nervous. I took that time actually to get down on one knee and proposed to Divya and Divya was shocked. You know, I think everyone was shocked. Like there's tears are all around. It was very emotional. And I really asked if she wants to marry me. And she said, yes. So we hugged each other and we celebrated and it was very exciting. Then a week later I actually flew out to Divya and that was the first time I became a member of DeafBlind Citizens in Action. That was the first time I was the member. So I did do that then a year or two later brought us to today where we are dealing with COVID, which is very concerning. Cause we don't get to see each other as often. Um, but I am hoping to be able to move to Orlando from South Florida sometime in the future. And I hope that once we do, we get to spend more time together and be happier. So that's my hope for the future. Thank you.
[Doug]: Yeah, that, that was terrific. And certainly a lot to talk about in there. So I'd like to go back a little bit, and just talk a little bit more about some of, some of the things that you mentioned. So Divya, I'd love to go back to, you know, Jeremy talked about how he was relatively new to the deafblind community when you two met each other and that you kind of helped him, um, kind of helped introduce him to the deafblind community in a way. Can you, can you talk a little bit more about that from your perspective?
[Divya]: Jeremy had never met another deafblind person. He went to hearing school growing up in South Florida. I thought he was the only deafblind person cause he never met anybody else like him because everyone else around him was either deaf or hearing. So he had a lot that he was holding back Because of that, because of it, His vision loss and his hearing loss, he was really holding so much in, when he became a student at the Conklin Center, he learned a lot of new things, The idea of what it meant to be deafblind it's it has a culture, there's an experience similar to other cultures and other experiences. When I first met Jeremy, he was extremely quiet. He didn't understand what was going on with his vision and his vision had tunnels. He didn't have much forever vision. He didn't really understand interpreters and how they were signing. And that is one of the reasons I helped him. I wanted him to feel comfortable around him to feel welcomed as if he was at home. I asked him if he needed any sort of help or support because he had no sort of advocacy skills at that time. No one's supporting him. And you know, for him, communication was tough. I know he prefers English sign language. I most interpreters use ASL and Jeremy was struggling to understand them. And I would, you know, tell interpreters and sort of translate for Jeremy to make sure that he understood because he didn't understand their ASL.
[Divya]: That was different for him. You know, he was, and it was interesting that he was able to understand me, but not able to understand others. I shared with Jeremy my experiences in being deafblind . You know, I explained to him what my vision is, all that sort of information and that deafblind people can do things in every day life. You know, that I said, I've been to New York and I encouraged in Jeremy, you should go to New York, too. It would benefit you. It would benefit your life. It would make it so much better that, you know, for me, there was a drastic change in for you. There could be addressed exchange. And I have seen that change in Jeremy. He used to hold things in. He used to be very shy and almost isolated. And after meeting me and my encouragement, his life has dramatically changed. I can see it. It is amazing. He is so talkative. So animated. He has a lot to say, he's got lots of thoughts. He's extremely creative. He loves to engage in conversation, be independent. And that is so different than the person he was before. I'm for me, I feel like I sort of encouraged that change in his life, and for the better, you know? And I wonder, did I help do that? Did, did God somehow inspire me to meet Jeremy to help him? Is that, you know, some sort of divine intervention here and I'm very happy for Jeremy and happy for the big changes that have happened in his life. He now, you know, with his family and friends, he even, they even see this change in him. They're used to, you know, this, this is just a different Jeremy than before.
[Doug]: I love to hear that. You know, we, we often hear in, in relationships, people refer to their partner is their better half. But certainly, you know, what we hope for in a relationship is that each person helps the other person grow. And it certainly sounds like you've had that effect on each other, which is, which is really amazing. So, I want to go, Jeremy took us through the story of him proposing. I'd love to hear about that event from your perspective, Divya. Can you walk us through what that was like for you? Was it something that was completely unexpected in that moment? Can you tell us a little bit more about that moment from, for you?
[Divya]: This is Divya. I did know, before he did the actual proposal, I knew it was going to happen. He, before it happened, we've been traveling a little bit and he just kept saying about, Hey, what do you think about maybe getting engaged? What's your plan? And I just kinda suspected something was coming. He also talked about it to my best friend as well. Um, and they had been in communication over it. So I knew something was sorta coming cause he had encouraged my friends to come to this event. So I knew something was in the works, but I also was surprised when it did happen. You know, I had the idea that he was going to propose while we were at the Institute, but I wasn't sure on the other side of that, I was very happy.
[Divya]: You know, again, just going back to it, wasn't something I expected. I wasn't sure, you know, is it too soon? Is it, you know, all those sorts of things it has was something I considered, but really how he did it, you know, and showing people that we could see that we were both very happy and I knew that we were going to have a happy future together. And so that's why I said yes to the engagement that's, you know, how it actually happened was, you know, obviously in a very special place and, you know, it's, you want something to be romantic when you envision it before it actually happens. You know, lots of other places are special and beautiful and you know, there's proposals, but having it happen there, the way it did in my home, you know, as we're there supporting the young people and the teens and I had been going to that site since 2005, I had been working as a mentor, lecturing, and then around 2010 rather is when I started lecturing. So having all that time and all that history there, it really felt like home to me, it really felt like that was my family. So I was really happy that the proposal actually happened there the way it did.
[Doug]: So Divya. I know that when we first connected to actually talk about, the event that we did last night with The Feeling Through Experience, when I was getting to know you more, one of the things that you brought up was that you really wanted a platform to talk about your love story between you and Jeremy, that you thought it was really important for other people to hear about a deafblind love story. Can you go into a little bit more detail about why, why that's important to have a platform to talk about that topic?
[Divya]: This is Divya. It's really important to show the world and show them that people with disabilities can do everything except for us, we can't see, or we can't hear, or other individuals that perhaps have physical and physical disabilities or challenges. Everyone has their own sort of way about going and doing things. People with dual disabilities, we have our own goals. We have a life that we want to live our own motivation and our own way of getting there. It's important for young people for the younger generation, as they later grow up and become teens, and then eventually adults, or whatever time that the deemed appropriate for them, either their twenties or thirties, they might be feeling nervous. Like, how do I go back there? How do I date someone that's deafblind or has a physical disability? How do I do it? It can make someone nervous. I noticed, You know, they might, those young people, they might have other siblings that are more carefree and don't worry about that. But people with disabilities, you know, we have a different experience, a different experience, what it means to actually date and what that looks like. Usually when you're trying to, you know, dating someone that's deafblind, and when you're candid or rather your candid, hey, I want to date you. I'm deafblind. You sometimes you have to educate others around you and others might have a negative perspective at times that you can't do that. You're deafblind. You can't, there's a whole host of things that you can't do. You can't have children. So there's a lot of negative perspectives and opinions out there, which you need to push aside and you need to be positive. We need to learn and have experiences and grow. Say you're dating someone and it doesn't really work out.
[Divya]: That's fine. Look for somebody else, look for that right person. You need to follow your heart. You'll find that person when it's the right time, when, when it's the right time in your life and the two of us or the two of you rather, will build that relationship. So it's really important that the younger generations have that and see that and have role models for it. Also, I've noticed lots of people out there in the world. Don't, you know, there's not a whole lot of love stories that include people with disabilities. There have been slow changes where there's love stories that include individuals with disabilities, but I really haven't seen many that include deaf people or deafblind people, well or individuals in wheelchairs, perhaps two people that are both blind, whose hearing blind individuals. You don't really see their stories being told as openly out there in the world. When you read books or you go to the movies, you know, you don't see that out there. And we need to educate people that people with disabilities have a love story too, and that can impact and touch people's hearts out there in the world and start a change, a change that can eventually make things better in the future to have more equality on what a typical person versus a person with disabilities has in their story and have a unity of life between all people and equality. That's basically what everyone wants is to have equal access and equality every day of their life that people can achieve and do whatever they want.
[Doug]: You know, Divya. I was nodding profusely throughout that entire, what you were just saying because it was, it all was so beautifully put. And I hope really rings true for everyone who's gonna, who's watching this live are gonna come to this later. Um, certainly, I think you really just encapsulated a lot of what the Feeling Through platform is. Um, you know, the hope being that certainly it's important to talk about elements of, deafblindness and deafblind culture, because it's not something talked about very much, but more than that, it's a space for people from that community to talk about a lot of other things that don't have to do with deafblindness that are universal. That everyone experiences, like love like a love story and the importance for other people who are maybe unfamiliar with the deafblind community to be able to see people within the community as fully formed multifaceted people, just like anyone else who go through life experiences, just like anyone else, and experience these important aspects of life, just like anyone else. So you really captured that beautifully. I'd love to ask Jeremy as well, just on that topic of why it's important for people to hear about a deafblind love story. Uh, do you have anything else that you'd like to add to that?
[Jeremy]: Sure. This is Jeremy. I really want people to be aware of not only deafblindness, but people with disabilities. I want them to know that, you know, they can have friendships and meaningful friendships that they can have their family support and understand that they're in charge of making their own situations and pursuing their own happiness, that they can live independently. That love can make things happy for them. And it's a real blessing and that those partners can live together, that it is possible, and how people can learn about individuals with disabilities and how they live. And it happens with couples and, you know, you see people coupling up all around. I myself have seen a lot of deafblind individuals marrying each other and others with disabilities, and they live great lives. They're very happy. They're very fulfilled. And I think it's important for people to see that because it'll help them when they come to those own decisions on their own and that their families can support them and all loved ones can. And how it doesn't have to just be about the couples. It could be everybody that comes together because of this love.
[Doug]: I have a question that I'm going to ask both of you, but I'd like to start with Divya. Divya, was it important for you to find a partner who was deafblind? Was that an important part of partnership to you?
[Divya]: Yes. With different disabilities. And let me Give you an example here. Individuals with disabilities can be successful and can have good relationships. For me, it was important. I needed someone to understand who we are, where I'm coming from. And for me, you know, identifying as a person that has a disability and I needed to figure out how this person would fit in my life, what my future would look like, you know, setting my goals and having those in place, having patients honestly, is another characteristic, having faith. And finding the right time in my life would lead me to great successful things as compared to rushing them and not having the time and be right in my life. So it was different for me. I wanted to find a person I don't with other individuals. Let me just say, I always thought there was this sort of wall between us until I met Jeremy. With Jeremy, he was the right person for me before him, you know, things were not that great. And with Jeremy, I had, I took it extremely slow. I wanted to know what Jeremy's goals for the future, where I needed to know more about his background. I wanted to really make sure he was the right person for me or not. And clearly he was, you know, it started out initially with Jeremy initiating with a little bit of flirting, which eventually, you know, I resisted, I, I put up a wall there. Um, but he did it slowly. And for me, it was important,
[Divya]: You know, to have that respect. And I think that's important for people with disabilities to feel respected, to feel that their cultures and their traditions are valued And, and really to have that respect for everyone and their families and traditions that everything is, everyone is valued. But for me, with Jeremy, It was different than it was with other people. We were happy. We are happy together. And right now it's the right time for people with disabilities out there to start opening up, to talk to their family members all throughout the world, no matter your cultural beliefs, your traditional beliefs, individuals with disabilities need to get out there and tell what their desires are. Talk about what they're looking for in a partner or a person they want to be with so that their family members can understand and help them find the person perhaps that they're looking for. People with disabilities want to be happy in their lives as well. And family is also a part of that. It's important for everyone to have unity, communication, and really just being open and supportive of everyone as well as to educate each other. And once you have those traits, you will feel like you're gone from being a stressed out, frustrated person, which isn't a happy life, which is chaotic. And I don't want that sort of life, but once you can get that sort of place where the time is, right, you'll feel better and educating others will help you open up even further to share with your family as what your desires are for the future and your goals
[Doug]: And Jeremy, was it important for you to find a partner who is deafblind?
[Jeremy]: Sure. This is Jeremy. I think it was important for me. No, I think it was important for my life. Um, I'd have to give it some more thought, but I do think it was yes.
[Doug]: Also Jeremy, you know, Divya had mentioned earlier that she grew up with, with Hindu culture, traditional Indian culture. And I know Jeremy, you mentioned before that you're Jewish. I'm not sure how much you identify as that culturally. We didn't get into that yet, but I'm wondering if, there's ever been any, if that's ever been challenging in any way to navigate the cultural differences between you?
[Jeremy]: This is Jeremy. No, no, no, no problems there. You know, we understand the situation as it is. Um, I'm not, you know, the strictest Jewish, I am like the reform Jewish tradition. So I mean, I'm open to whatever traditions come. When Divya and I get married, you know, we both have that mutual respect. I am mindful of honoring her traditions and her family celebrations. And she's the same with me. Yeah. And there's all sorts of different beliefs out there and different celebrations that we will be celebrating together. And I think that you can do so respectfully.
[Doug]: And Divya, to kind of, um, throw that similar question back to you, did you feel any sort of need or, or responsibility to marry someone who was traditionally Indian, of Indian culture like yourself, or was that not something that was necessary for you?
[Divya]: This is Divya. Cultures and values are important, but if it's those cultures and values are not the right person or not at the right time in your life, it's, it's maybe not going to work out. It won't be the right fit. And for me, there are many people that it wasn't the right fit with that maybe had those attributes. You know, maybe it's part of the fact that I've been, you know, in Canada or the UK, and now you ask there's all, you know, it's all affected me. And most important for me though, I have to say, is happiness following what God has given me. And, you know, I've asked God to please bring that right person into my life. And he answered that for me, you know, through a lot of soul searching on my own part. I really had to figure out is this person, the right person for me or not? And so, yes, although I have traditional family values and those are important to me, things have happened that have shorted shifted, uh, shifted my path, which has then led me to Jeremy.
[Doug]: So, I understand, Jeremy question for you. I understand that you and Divya are currently living in different places. Can you talk a little bit more about that?
[Jeremy]: Yes. Right now we are living separately. We're doing the long distance and you know, my hope is sometime in the future to get a job, you know, it's been a challenge I've been looking for quite some time, but I am looking to relocate to the Orlando area. So this way I can go there, you know, and hopefully continue my life with Divya, get married, um, and we can live together. And I hope that happens someday. You know, I am very spiritual and I think it's going to work out.
[Doug]: And, and where are you currently living now?
[Jeremy]: I'm actually also in Florida. I'm more South Florida in the Fort Lauderdale area. Um, so it is like a drivable distance to where Divya is, um, like four hours or so, but that's kind of where I'm at.
[Doug]: And Divya. What's it been like for you to navigate a long distance relationship?
[Divya]: This is Divya. Long distance can be a pretty much of a challenge. We don't get to see each other in person often. I would say we see each other as sometimes every four to six months, depending, you know, we'll see each other during Christmas break during summer break, honestly, you know, maybe another time in between there, but we go long periods of times without seeing each other. And it is different. Yeah. But when we're together, I miss Jeremy when we're not together, I do dearly miss him. I love being with him. We, you know, we love being together and making plans for the future, but we have this distance thing and that's the situation we're in. We talk all the time through FaceTime, through texts. We communicate with each other obviously every day. And that really helps keep us connected to each other. My spirit is with Jeremy, as I know that his spirit is really with me. So even though we're physically distant, our spirits are with each other. And we're just waiting it out. You know, we've been doing the long distance thing now for four years and I remain optimistic that hopefully one day Jeremy's going to, Jeremy's going to be able to move here and we'll be able to start our lives together and have probably ever after.
[Doug]: And Jeremy you'd mentioned that you're currently looking for a job in that area. Is there a particular kind of job or a particular field that you'd like to work in?
[Jeremy]: And this is Jeremy. Primarily like my first job. I mean, I'm looking for two different opportunities, really. Like I'm currently looking in the food services industry, you know, I'm looking at like restaurants and hotels. I'm also looking something, you know, with technology currently I'm working with, I Can Connect the ICC. I'm a trainer for that program. I have been for the past two years and you know, it's a good, flexible schedule. I can go around working with deafblind individuals, how they can use technology for communication purposes. That's one job that I have, but I was hoping to add a second job in, you know, in services or with technology.
[Doug]: Divya, a question for you. I know before you had mentioned that people need to see more representation of, you know, deafblind couples and deafblind couples in love. I'm wondering, have you ever personally experienced any discrimination, particularly around your relationship with Jeremy? Is have you ever experienced anything around that?
[Divya]: This is Divya. Not really, not what I would call discrimination about our relationship. There have been people let's say we're at the airport or different authorities or the TSA, the airport, you know, they did, they use spoken language and I try to communicate that we can hear you. We can't see you, you know, and they just go a mile a minute, you know, so we've experienced that sort of communication and being able to rather, that sort of discrimination, being able to communicate in our environment, and not being able to access our environment. So that's what we've mostly experienced discrimination. You know, it's important to know what the environmental information is. And then I share that with Jeremy. You know, obviously I can't ignore Jeremy. I want him to be in the know, what's going on in the environment around us. Um, but most of the time, you know, the two of us have a very positive relationship and, and others do as well. There's no sorts of, uh, discrimination that we've really experienced as a result of our relationship of being together.
[Doug]: Jeremy, I'm wondering, in addition to, you know, you and Divya being far apart from each other, has COVID compounded any challenges for you? Has, have there been any additional challenges during this period of time where coronavirus has been around?
[Divya]: This is Divya. This is Divya signing. So during Coronavirus, that has been a big obstacle. It's caused me to be even more isolated as well as for Jeremy to be more isolated. We're both home, we're both lonely, we pretty much are in the house. We'd go out very occasionally, maybe just for a walk, but it is quite lonely, quite isolating. We used to FaceTime, you know, often and text often. And rather that's all we can do right now. We can't visit each other in person. So all we have is texting and FaceTime. You know, we need to be safe for both of us, need to be safe. And that is why we maintain this distance. Jeremy is a tactile communicator, um, or close signer and with coronavirus, you know, and this whole social distancing thing, you can't do that. And I can't go to see him the way I like to, and I can't maintain a social distance because he wouldn't be able to access me for communication. And Jeremy again, using tactile sign language, you know, that that's a challenge. So thinking about what would happen if we were actually in fact close to each other, you know, what if one of us was to be home sick as a result of that. And we just decided that our priority to each other is our safety.
[Divya]: We are hoping that Jeremy looks for a job and which is difficult to really find in the economy right now. We're hoping that once he's able to move, we'll see what the next steps are. Then for us, we'll make plans to be where, you know, to be close together. Because right now, really the concern, especially with traveling, if I was at him or he was to visit me, you know, the, the touch that you would each have, like taking an Uber or a Lyft, getting onto the bus, you have to touch things in your environment. And neither one of us wants to get sick. So we're going to see how things unfold here, you know, or being in Orlando, and where he is in South Florida. And wait until perhaps things are more safe and then we will be able to get together again.
[Doug]: So with the last couple minutes we have here, Jeremy, I'm wondering, are there any closing thoughts you'd like to share?
[Jeremy]: This is Jeremy. Sure. I mean, COVID has been a challenge, you know, not just for us, but for a deafblind community overall. It's really not easy. Um, it's really hard to socialize distantly. Um, I am hoping to move. I am hoping for that, you know, personal growth of owning a home and getting transportation done. I am looking at like how I'm going to navigate the world, using masks and gloves, figuring out how I can go food, shopping, getting what I need, simple things like that. You know, I think I'm going to need to figure it all out without the same assistance that I've been used to. And it's going to be a challenge for sure, but I'm planning for it now, you know, I'm already looking online.
[Jeremy]: I'm able to bring food to me via online services that are delivering it to me. So there's options out there that needs to be explored. And I wish we were in a situation where I could visit Divya or she could visit me. Um, but given the danger that's involved, it's just not feasible. And I feel like we're going to really have to wait for COVID to go away. And then from there, hopefully we'll have a lifelong of living together with Divya and we'll take it from there.
[Doug]: Well, certainly I'm hoping that you too can be come together And be in the same place as soon as possible. But I want to thank you both for joining me today and talking about your love story. Not only was it really interesting to hear, but I think it's, as you both mentioned a really valuable thing for other people to hear about. So thank you to all of you who tuned in today. As always, we'll be back with another episode of Feeling Through Live next week, same time, same place. And, for those of you who have been enjoying this, please share it with friends and family so we can help build this community even larger. And for those of you who haven't seen The Feeling Through Experience yet, or want to tune into a future one, feel free to go to a feelingthrough.com, sign up for our mailing list, where we'll announce the next opportunity to see it. All right. Thanks again, everyone, for tuning in. Thank you, Divya and Jeremy, and we'll see you all next week. Bye everyone.