MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
There are at least 2 million people in America who have thoughts and ideas they can't put into words. People who have had strokes or traumatic brain injuries often live with aphasia - difficulty using language, both written and spoken. But music mostly originates in the undamaged hemisphere of the brain. People with aphasia can often sing.
APHASIA CHOIR OF VERMONT: (Singing) I'd like to hold it in my arms and keep it company.
KELLY: This is the Aphasia Choir of Vermont, founded more than a decade ago by former speech language pathologist Karen McFeeters Leary. And today, for our weekly segment of short-form audio documentaries, we're going to meet one of the members of the choir. The story is brought to us by Erica Heilman from the podcast "Rumble Strip."
ANNA KING: Do I - I think I will know when to come in.
ERICA HEILMAN: That's Anna King getting ready for her solo with the Aphasia Choir of Vermont. Anna has been living with aphasia for 19 years, struggling with language and with word finding. We take language utterly for granted. We talk and talk. So what is it like to be someone struggling to find words, and how are they met out in the world of talkers, in a world pretty uncomfortable with silence? Here is a tiny window into Anna's world. Welcome.
APHASIA CHOIR OF VERMONT: (Singing) Good day sunshine.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Chris (ph), I was thinking more of a fade-out.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: I was exercising when I had this, like, horrible bike accident. Then everything changed. I had to learn how to think again, speak again, talk again, get up again.
HEILMAN: How old were you?
KING: Eighteen - like - I was, like, three months after I had graduated. I was going to go to UVM for chemistry, but then my life took a different turn. Like, there is a loneliness, but darkness and lightness - like, you can't have one without the other. And I understand that really deeply.
APHASIA CHOIR OF VERMONT: (Singing) Whenever I want you, all I have to do is dream.
HEILMAN: What are the 18 sort of common ways that people react in moments with people who are struggling to speak?
KING: Don't let them talk. Speak loudly to them. I wish that everyone could be patient.
HEILMAN: There's something someone wants to say, and they're not finding the way to say it, and I'm not guessing it, so there's a silence. What does this silence - the giving up of the guessing but just being there anyway - what does that mean to the person who can't speak?
KING: Everything (laughter).
HEILMAN: Yeah.
KING: You don't get it, and you just will try and then fail. And you tried a human kind (laughter). Yeah. And you can be kind. Yeah.
APHASIA CHOIR OF VERMONT: (Singing) The fundamental things apply as time goes by.
HEILMAN: What about love?
KING: Oh. Oh, that really touches me. Yeah. Because my parents love me so much, and my dogs love me (laughter). And I think I haven't not experience. I am kind of not experienced in love, but I think that that's what Karen does for us. Like, it brings us all together.
HEILMAN: Joy is what you're describing.
KING: Yeah. The experience of getting all in a room and singing (laughter). And I think biting into a peach while walking my dogs. Like, they just got that. This life is precious. Every day, like, you go out and you smell (laughter). Yeah (laughter). You know?
HEILMAN: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS CHIRPING)
HEILMAN: On June 2, the aphasia choir had their ninth performance to a sold-out audience. It was a hit, of course, because the aphasia choir is awesome, but also because Karen had the good sense to pick some excellent songs from the '80s.
How did your solo go?
KING: Good. I think it went good.
HEILMAN: I want to hear it.
KING: Yeah (laughter). Hold on.
HEILMAN: Anna pulled up the recording on her phone.
KING: Hold on. Hold on. Hold - hold the phone. Hold the phone (laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KING: (Singing) You with the sad eyes, don't be discouraged. Oh, I realize it's hard to take courage. In a world full of people, you can lose sight of it all. The darkness inside you may make you feel so small.
APHASIA CHOIR OF VERMONT: (Singing) And I see your true colors shining through. I see your true colors, and that's why I love you. So don't be ashamed.
KELLY: That was Erica Heilman from the podcast "Rumble Strip." She is also a reporter for Vermont Public, where a version of this story previously aired. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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