BISMARCK, N.D. – Lindsey Solberg Herbel has caught the attention of North Dakotans, as she stands beside Governor Doug Burgum during his frequent coronavirus press briefings, interpreting his words for the state’s hearing impaired.
Of all the people who have become fans of the reluctant sign language celebrity, perhaps no one has been more mesmerized by Lindsey, than Dolores Camp.
For Camp, watching Solberg Herbel is like taking a trip back in time. There isn’t much in her nearly 92 years of living that Dolores Camp doesn’t recall. “I can remember a lot of things from way back,” she laughs.
Lately, she’s been reminiscing about how her life changed 70 years ago. “My son is totally deaf,” said Camp.
A bout of spinal meningitis left her son, Steve, unable to hear. He was nine months old. “There could have been other things, so I thought we were blessed to just have the deafness,” said Camp. But in the 50s, raising a child with a handicap wasn’t easy.
“I remember when you had a handicapped child, it was kept in the back room if you had company,” she recalled. “You didn’t talk about that child or anything.”