The story is told by Natalia Afanasyeva:
About five years ago, I suddenly began to lose my hearing rapidly, and soon I was sinking into almost total silence. The doctors never found the cause. But they diagnosed me with sensorineural hearing loss and made no secret of the fact that there was very little chance of improvement.
It was hard, awfully hard to accept this "new life. The world around me became like a silent movie. Just to talk to my loved ones, to listen to birds singing - all this became impossible... But I had to get on with my life.
I had to learn to read lips, learn sign language. That is how I now understood worship.
With time, the new reality became more familiar. I tried to enjoy every day, my loved ones, and nature. I prayed for healing, even though the doctors had given up hope. I believed, however, that God heard me, that He knew better than we do when and how to come to help.
I celebrated Easter that year, as usual, in the temple, at the night liturgy. That Easter was the most extraordinary Easter of my life.
I remember it like it is now: I was standing, praying, and suddenly the chorus broke into the silence around me, singing "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in the tombs bestowing life!"
For the first seconds I didn't even realize what had happened, and I couldn't believe it. I hear it again... And afterwards there were only tears and gratitude to God, which I could not even express in words.
Maybe from the outside it's hard to believe, but it was in my life. And then I realized more than ever how important it is to be able to wait, not give up hope and not lose faith. To go through trials with courage. To pray, even if there is no answer yet. To rejoice in each day and never tire of believing. Just trusting Him is the most important thing...
Source: foma.ru (Russian)