Well, not exactly. We would like it if you tell us a story! Send your stories, letters or email messages and we will include it in the next update. It may be aphasia or another disability, but it does not need to be. It may be any kind of communication problem, and it can be from those afflicted or from family or friends. We would like it if you have used the computer to learn, or relearn, because of a communication problem, but it does not have to be...it can be anything you want to. You can even complain about this website or me, but of course I will delete it as soon as I get it!

I was only kidding! I would even put the complaints online. Communication is critical and any kind is welcome and encouraged. You've already got the flavor of the website so we would like to have more feedback, especially aphasia/computers/Microsoft programs/disability, etc. We use Microsoft programs so that means we can edit or anything else and make it nice, or...we can put in online just the way it is: it's up to you. You can put your name, address or email address if you want to, or not. It's up to you. If you want to state the "author" we can do that, but if you want it entered anonymously it will be done that way.

So, dear audience, here are a few stories from those afflicted or about those that have aphasia...

A Strange Land

...an aphasia fantasy

Anonymous

Over many years I tried, but I could never do it. I tried learning Spanish and  tried French, but I just couldn't do it. My mind would not accept anything other than English. English was fine and I could do that like anyone else, but any other language was too hard. I assumed I would never speak a "different" language other than English, but that's changed a lot. Today I have a brand-new language...aphasia! This new language was never learned in school, had no dictionaries for these new words and even though millions of people talked like that there was no discipline to prepare us to use this new language.

It seems that most people accept the fact that others talk "differently" if they speak a language from a different country. They not only accept it, some even like it. People may like it when someone from France tries to speak "English" and they smile and listen closely and...they seem to enjoy it. I have found that this is not the same reaction for those that are afflicted with aphasia. For those that have always been able to talk "normally", and instantly can't anymore, people think we are incompetent. I thought about that a lot...and I thought maybe, just maybe…

Why not? How about a brand-new country and a brand-new language? What would happen if others thought I came from "someplace else", and what would happen if I could not talk like "everyone else" but had a different language? My mind loves humor, so why not? So I did.

I had to start somewhere so I created a new "Strange Land".  I couldn't use "Aphasia Land" of course, but my new name had to be easy to say but unique. It only took a few minutes to find Astrangeorus. That was it! Astrangeorus...I liked it. They would never think about the "strange" land stuff...they would just assume that they have never heard about it before, and that would work. I now had a new country and a new name and the language was very easy. I simply had to "talk" just the way I have had been for a long time. If I "switched" words it was easy...I did it all the time! There were many words that I simply couldn't remember, kind of like someone who came from a different country. It seemed that listening carefully and try to find the right word was just like others from a different land, and a different language. It should work…maybe!

But I didn't know, of course. Perhaps it would be exactly the same, people not talking to me, never calling me or simply had to "do something else" when I was there. I didn't know, but on the other hand...that's the way it was now, so what could I lose? I had seen so many people talking to others that came from a "different" place, having dinner or something else, but could not communicate the same way that others did, but that's because they came from some place else. They had no problems. Why not me?

I knew why, of course: I had a disability. But if they didn't know...if they thought I came from a different country and I just couldn't speak like everyone else, maybe...just maybe...

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