It’s terrible, especially for somebody who was used to speaking and speaking well. Usually with Alzheimer’s, people get frustrated by their inability to speak or remember, and I think it’s worse with stroke-induced aphasia because people know that they’re not the way they once were.
Very tragic. Weirdly enough, I had an elderly friend who had been a teacher for years, but for the last three years had been in care and totally silent. One day, she suddenly woke up and said that she needed to “do my teaching,” which I guess was what she said when she set off for work in the morning.
She talked for hours, perfectly lucid, about God, about life, and she prayed for people she had known. Then she asked when “the boat was coming,” asked the name of the boat, and settled back and was silent again.
Strangely enough, the name of the “boat”…which one of the people present had just said off the top of her head, because she had no idea what the question meant…was the name of the hospice aide who came in to care for her and was there when she died a day or so later.
We never know what is going on with people when they’re silent, what things are being worked out, and what peace will eventually be achieved.
We never know what is going on with people when they’re silent, what things are being worked out, and what peace will eventually be achieved
Well said.
Yes. I know if it happened to me, I would be frustrated and beyond furious. My pal, shortly after the onset of his aphasia, became completely and indomitably positive in his attitude. Which was I suppose great for him, but more frustrating for me, because I knew none of his/our clients could conduct business with him/us without wondering whom in hell they were talking to, whether he was on heavy drugs and whether “next week” meant “later this afternoon” or “next month” or “sometime in the future, time unknown”. He was perfectly aware that he had the affliction yet blissfully unaware that he could not transmit coherent meaning and likewise unaware that it was patently obvious. It turned pathetic and pitiful and I was not happy with how I dealt with it.