Jessi is a wonderful young woman in his mid-twenties. She has been deaf since she was ten years old. She transitions between her present age and her younger self so that she can share her story from the perspective of how she saw it as a child. She was born with Autism and was diagnosed when she was two. This was something that created a challenge within the relationship of her mother and father, but they managed to stay together and fight through it. But at the age of ten she began to show signs that something else was wrong with her. She is soon diagnosed with Acoustic tumors. They were growing on her brain and when they were removed it also caused hearing loss. Through her story she tells us how she fought through her Autism and learned how to speak the only way she could, through sign language. Her spirit is that of a fighter but her parents begin to feel the pressure of not being able to handle her diagnosis not realizing that she is actually thriving. It all comes to a halt when her father commits suicide from the pressure of not being able to help her. She is present with him when he takes his own life, stays with him until her mother returns and has forever been changed by the experience. Her story is one of heart and gives a better understanding for the things that we take for granted and don’t truly appreciate. (*This story can be performed by any performer. The writer gives this permission. Also, this character must be able to do sign language.)
