RIGHT TIME RIGHT PLACE Disability is the knot in tie that binds them

— If you listen to the story of Miguel and Camillia "Cammy" Juarez closely enough, you may, if you're of a certain generation, begin to hear the rock ballad "Livin' on a Prayer."

There's a desperate togetherness to the couple in both the song and the Juarezes, but while the fictional Gina "works the diner all day" and Johnny's an unemployed dock worker with rock 'n' roll dreams, Cammy's a University of Arkansas junior and Miguel lays landscaping for Triple A Lawns. WhenGina tells Johnny "We've got to hold on to what we've got," that's something Cammy and Miguel can relate to. Then Gina turns nihilistic - "it doesn't make a difference if we make it or not" - but Miguel and Cammy will have none of that. They share a lonely disability. It does make a difference if they make it.

Miguel and Cammy were born deaf, and after years of disappointment dating people who could hear, they found each other.

Cammy Pennington grew up in the Arkansas River Valley - specifically Russellville and London - and Miguel came from the Federal District of Mexico City.

She had the advantage of interpreters throughout her public schooling, and for high school she transferred to the Arkansas School for the Deaf. Today, she's at the University of Arkansas, where she has interpreters and note-takers as she works toward a degree in criminal justice.

Miguel, though a promising student with a mind for finance, couldn't get an interpreter, not even in college.

In his district, youths divided along gang lines. Miguel, the only deaf kid in the neighborhood, felt the pressure doubly. Gangs gave their members a sense ofsocial security that Miguel's disability made ever more important, and they were opportunities for entrepreneurship - running drugs and guns. He learned to wield a knife skillfully and practiced stick fighting. He has a scar on the side of his forehead where he was hit with a bar.

A college dropout, he began working for Toshiba in Juarez, Mexico, putting together components for laptops. It was the secretary of his plant who helped him get a passport and visa and come to the United States. It took him about a year to learn American Sign Language.He is working toward naturalization.

It was at a Northwest Arkansas Association of the Deaf meeting in late 2001 that Miguel and Cammy first locked eyes. She says he looked too old for her, and he wasn't sure she would date a Mexican.

It would be another two years before he could get a date with her.

"I never thought about dating Cammy, but deaf people here persuaded me," he says, and on their first date they went to Chili's, their hot spot, and to the mall where they got into a heated game of air hockey.

For both, what they remember most is how easily and copiously they communicated, their fingers and hands closing the space between their bodies like pata-cake. For Miguel, previous romances had been with the hearing, and "it was kind of tiring." There was a lot of writing involved, and on social occasions he was left out. But the alternative was lonelier. The hearing women he dated "were just somebodyto go out with," even when he discovered they were involved with other men.

Cammy had similar experiences, but more than that, she was determined to marry a hard-working man. And she found that in Miguel.

He's a team leader at Triple A Lawns, where his disability means he's particularly diligent.

"I'm very focused on my work - no distractions," he says. "[People who have their hearing] talk, they talk on their phones."

Miguel has provided for Cammy, as he promised her father he would before he died, a month after Cammy and Miguel married in June 2005. They took her father their wedding album to show him the pictures on a Tuesday, and he died two days later.

They waited to marry so that Miguel could save the money to give her a Hawaiian honeymoon, and when he did, he paid in cash.

If you have an intriguing how-wemet story or know someone who does, please e-mail Cyd King at

[email protected]

Northwest Profile, Pages 43, 47 on 09/27/2009

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