Words and Music and Thanksgiving

I’m helping my friend Karla practice using words. We’re working from the sheet music for “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” and the page is heavily marked up. Articles and little prepositions are circled, so that they won’t get left out. Sometimes we have to stop to go over words with diphthongs or extra syllables. The word “bridge” seems especially tough for her this week.

Last March, my active, healthy, witty, competent, extroverted, young friend suffered a massive stroke that left her speechless and paralyzed on her right side. Since then, she’s made an amazing — albeit incremental – recovery, and is now living on her own again; hiking, driving, socializing, and going to various forms of therapy.

But speech remains a struggle. She can hear and understand just fine and reading is no problem, but finding the right words to say what she means and then retraining all those fine muscles of the face, lips, tongue and larynx to actually get the words out is an ongoing challenge.

Writing things down might be an alternative – but she’s right-handed and still can’t use her right arm well enough to use it for writing. Phone conversations are an uphill climb; email is like Everest.

We’re using music therapy to work on the words because Karla sings beautifully. And sometimes, the way music flows through the body and brain and heart helps bypass the blocked neural passages. Having been in choirs for years, Karla reads music, and she’s always on pitch and on the beat, so it’s a joy to do this together. And it’s got me playing guitar again, so it feels good to have an old skill that’s coming in handy again.

We get to the refrain, and she surprises me by breaking into the high harmony part. Damn, she can sing. She catches my eye and grins and we both feel uplifted, knowing that somehow the world is a better place because of the bright, clear sounds ringing off the walls in this little kitchen.

On this day before Thanksgiving, I am grateful to all the brave souls who find a way to express themselves in words, even when it means struggling against limitations imposed from within or without.

Keep speaking out, keep writing, and keep singing!

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