Lovely Like Audrey

"Just think, for the last few years I have been inflicted with an incurable complaint. Though endowed with a passionate and lively temperment, I was soon obliged to seclude myself and live in solitude. I could not bring myself to say to people, “Speak up! Shout! I am deaf!” My misfortune pains me doubly. And as much as it leads to my being misjudged, I must live as an outcast. How humiliated I have felt. If somebody heard a shepherd sing, I heard nothing. Such experiences almost made me dispair, and I was on the point of putting an end to my life. The only thing that held me back was my art. For indeed, it seemed to me impossible to leave this world before I had produced all the works that I have felt the urge to compose. And thus, I have dragged on this miserable existance. Almighty God who look down into my innermost soul, You see into my heart and You know that it is filled with love for humanity and a desire to do good."