Signs, Songs, Silences and Secrets

This is the story of a young woman and her best friend as they attempt to establish lives as independent adults in the 21st century. Both are extremely close and loving with their parents. They are CODAs (hearing children of deaf adults). It is not only the interpreting needs of their parents, but the love, care and support the daughters have been given, which determine this closeness. English and American Sign Language (ASL) are not the only languages used in their homes. Being bi or tri-lingual offered both young women choices of college majors and career tracks. These varied languages are only a backdrop to the life-events, harrowing experiences, adventures and romances that the two mid-twenty-somethings experience in their lives.
Due to circumstances in Paris toward the end of their internships in their senior years of college, Aubrey's published romantic novella, based loosely on the love story of her Great-Great Grandmother and Great-Great Grandfather becomes involved. This 'story set within the story' takes place on Martha's Vineyard in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It relates the harmonious relations between the hearing, many of whom signed, and the deaf on the Island. The use and ultimate demise of Martha's Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL) is an important part of this story.