Just for a moment, try to think what it's like to live in my world. Stop what you're doing and put your hands over your ears. Are there no sounds at all? Or are the noises of the street just quieter than usual?

I know Mum loves listening to the sounds of birds singing in the countryside when we go walking. In my world there are no birds singing. There are no noisy men working on the roads. No people leaving bars late at night shouting at each other. No babies crying.

But the man I love doesn't live in my world. He lives in the hearing world.

The first time I saw him, he was standing in front of the shop across the road from our house. He was putting apples and oranges onto the table outside the shop and his black hair had blue lights in it from the sun.

I watched him from my bedroom window, and I smiled at how carefully he was putting the fruit onto the table. He was like an artist, not a shop assistant. Then, as I watched, a big motorbike went up the street. The young man looked up and smiled as he watched it go past. I saw the motorbike go past, but he heard it first, then saw it.

After the motorbike was gone, he went back to his fruit. But then a small girl fell off her bicycle close to the shop and he ran to help her. He knew she wanted help because he heard her.

In only one minute, I already knew four things about him.

He had beautiful black hair.

He liked motorbikes.

He was kind to apples, oranges and little girls.

And, of course, he could hear.

Until I first saw him, I didn't think very often about being deaf. It's all I've ever known, and I can't do anything to change it. And all my boyfriends have been deaf. But after I saw the young man, I wanted to be like most other people. I didn't want to be different.

I soon found out that he only worked at the shop on Saturdays. After that I went in there to buy something each Saturday. Every week I wanted to talk to him, but every week I just smiled and paid for my things. Things that I didn't really want.

Mum often looked at me strangely when I came back from the shop. 'We didn't need any apples, Samantha,' she said once. 'I bought some yesterday.' And another time, 'We've already got biscuits in the cupboard.'