the PDF of her book - National Aphasia Association

Tales from the Other Side of Language 37
Speech and Language Pathology. Much later I learn she began the department
at Rusk, created modern speech rehabilitation, and was awarded a honorary
doctor of medicine from the University of Goteborg, Sweden.
At first her office looks small and nondescript, but entering, I see it is
wrapped around the edge of the building, with huge windows looking high
over the city. I’m in a spacious tower.
She is listening carefully as I rush haltingly to tell my medical story, then
how tired I am all the time with my practice. At length, I am spent.
Gently she tells me, “You are imploding yourself with language in
trying to do a clinical practice. You’re exhausted because you are trying to
do what you can’t do!”
My body, straining to attend to her words, relaxes its grip. “S..o…! That’s
all … it is!” I think. Suddenly I feel euphoric; it seems possible now.
“Most aphasics with the kind of insult you had don’t continue in high
verbal professions like yours.” There isn’t anything dreadfully wrong, only
that I am trying to go beyond what my damaged brain can manage. She does
not dissuade me from continuing my practice. “I’m thinking how it would
be for me as an academic,” she continues. She speaks as though she has
been in my place. She penetrates my desires and my losses and takes me far
beyond the reflection of the worn bag lady. I feel seen, with all the pieces of
me disarrayed before her.
“One recovers from stroke. One doesn’t recover from aphasia, but,
rather, with aphasia,” she says.
I won’t be “cured,” I think. This is curiously reassuring and feels like
she has spoken my reality. Live with it, not against or despite it, as I have
been doing.
“Do any of the arts that please you, and do them a lot,” she tells me. I
didn’t expect this; she has handed me an immense gift. I imagine her words
written on a prescription pad.
She shows me how to set practical priorities carefully and often simply
do less. I space my few office sessions over the day, allowing time in between
to do non-verbal activities, listen to music, look at art, do hand work, exercise,