An excerpt from my book, “One Arm One Leg 100 Words, Overcoming Unbelievable Hardships”
Denial
The first stage is denial. Charlene thought she was normal. And yet no one could understand what she was saying, which only made her angry. She thought there was something wrong with us. She could actually hear the words that she wanted to say, but they never made it out of her mouth. When she opened her mouth to speak, only gibberish would come out. She just wouldn’t believe that we couldn’t understand her. She thought we were playing a joke on her. It was heart breaking for us to watch her inability to communicate or understand. The look of terror on her face said it all. We were all powerless to help her with her shock and denial, which took the form of a condescending and ridiculing tone toward us all. It was as if she was saying, “What is your problem? I am alright!”