My dad was on a Navy ship in the late 1950s. A big gun was shot off and no one told them to put on their ear protection. As a result he lost a lot of of his hearing. As he got older it got worse. That last five or so years of his life he became extremely isolated. He got a text phone, but when the pandemic hit his vascular dementia sped up due to no social interaction, and he no longer felt comfortable using the phone. I was lucky that I was able to spend a lot of in-person time with him during those years, especially after the pandemic hit. But I saw what hearing loss did to him.

My friend's husband, who is 61, got hearing aids two years ago. That's pretty young, but he's doing the smart thing. Maybe your badgering shouldn't be too gentle.

Spiderman was good enough to see twice?