By now I was speaking in short phrases and was slowly beginning to feel more comfortable having one-to-one conversations with friends who came to visit. It has been such a long time ago and I have forgotten so much.... but I must mention a few:
Sara S would come over to my house with her music books and play piano so she and I could enjoy trying to sing together.
One of these times she asked me what she could do to be of help to me. I hated to impose my reading on her, but I needed the practice and she had offered the help. It was a lovely day so we went outside to the terrace with the book and Sara listened to me laboriously read aloud. The pace was agonizingly slow. How slow? By the time I would get to the end of the sentence I would have forgotten what the beginning was. Sara listened intently though, needing to help me only a few times.
Charlotte F brought some religious, audio tapes for the two of us to listen to since she and I had been in a very meaningful prayer group with two other women for ten years before my first brain tumor. We soon gave up listening to the tape because I couldn't comprehend what was being said, so we moved on to something else. She had brought some duets so we could try to play the piano together. I was to play with my left hand... but I could never remember that a note had been made a sharp, or made a flat. I would play it as a natural every time; I could not remember. Time and time again I would play the note as a natural. You can imagine the sound. Poor Charlotte! It was certainly proof of friendship.
And Nancy A who was so active in and responsible for our being able to contact Dr. Billy Whetsell, Jr. at the time of my set back when we were so distraught.
Frances B, friend and a beautician, voluntarily came to me when I was still weak and not yet leaving the house, to trim my hair as it started growing back. After the trim we would go to the sun porch where we could sit down together so she could hold my hand to clip my fingernails. These visits meant so much to me, but she would accept no pay for her work, her time. I later started cutting my own hair, with my left hand.
Doris V was so generous to let us use her pool for both my exercising and swimming. Jack would take me and we would swim; Jack, normally and I, with my dangling right arm held beneath my body, would overhand with my left hand and scissor kick with my feet. I felt reasonably secure swimming in this manner. Then winter came and Anna W was so kind us use her indoor pool.
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