Mindpop: Having a Child After Having a Stroke
Learning to ask for help when you don’t want to.
Having to rely on others from time to time has the added benefit making me more patient with my son. (Maybe. I scream too.) In one tiny moment from the hospital before surgery, I recall sitting at a long industrial table at a session with a speech therapist. I remember staring at a word on a piece of paper forever, it seemed. I couldn’t remember what sound the first letter made. The word was “rat.” How did you say “R?” At that point, so messed up, I just gave up, shoulders slumping in defeat. A couple of days ago, my son was absolutely sure that “freem” was a word. “It was a freem,” he said, with feeling. The adults in the room looked confused. “Freem! Freem!” he said again, frustrated. I remember what it was like to not control your language. We never did figure out what he meant — like many of my stroke phrases, it was confusing to both of us. But I told him he could show me later and I think he knew I could relate.
— Hairpin pal Nina Mitchell has a great piece at Cosmo. (See also: her series for this site, and for her own site, Mindpop.)