Crossing the Void: My Aphasic Journey

by Carol Cline Schultz

"Crossing the My Aphasic Journey" is a 2013 blue ribbon winner, having been awarded first place category winner of the Chanticleer Book Reviews Journey Awards for Narrative Non-fiction Enlightenment. Carol Schultz suffered an aphasic stroke that left her completely without words. She could not speak, read nor write, and understood spoken words with great difficulty. Crossing the Void is the story of her courageous journey back. With the language part of her brain permanently damaged, in a different approach to re-learning speech, Schultz taught herself to visualize words to prompt her speech. Her book describes the painstaking process that led her from wordlessness to book author. In a masterfully crafted narrative, the author brings the reader into her aphasic mind enabling them to better understand what it is like to be aphasic. She provides fascinating insight into the workings of a damaged brain driven to regain normalcy, as well as a frank appraisal of the resources available to help aphasic stroke victims. Hers is the inspiring story of a woman determined to overcome a major disability and, now, to help others do so as well. Crossing the Void is a compelling read for everyone, but it especially begs to be read by every professional and lay person working with aphasia and language learning disorders. Crossing the Void tells of every stage of the author's aphasia; the onset of her stroke, her medical and speech therapy experience, the social and psychological aspects of being aphasic, and the strategies she developed to be able to speak, read and write again. The book includes brain language diagrams, a glossary, and appendices. The appendices include insights for advocates, work sheet aids, and a contact list of stroke and aphasia services. The author's website, www.CrossingTheVoid.com, lists related topics.

224 pages, Paperback

First published August 12, 2010

Reviews

[Pamela Beason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone who has ever interacted with a stroke victim--and especially every health care professional--needs to read this book! Ms. Schultz does an excellent job of describing what it was like to keep her intelligence, but lose her ability to communicate. Her battle to relearn English, and even to relearn the sounds and meaning of words, is nothing short of amazing.

[Rae Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

SHE TAUGHT HERSELF WORDS AGAIN! At first glance I wasn’t interested in this topic, even though memoirs are my favorite genre. And then I met the author. I could not believe she’d ever had aphasia, which I learned is a loss of the ability to use or understand words as the result of brain damage. In Carol’s, the cause was a stroke. From the opening chapter, I couldn’t stop reading. We experience what it was like for her to wake up wordless, with part of her body numb, in a tent in northern British Columbia. And this after a 230-mile canoe trip in the Yukon. We’re with her as she is transported home and the days after, in the hospital unable to communicate her needs. Pay attention, I thought! If this could happen to a healthy, active 53-year old woman, this could happen to me! We take our words and ability to speak for granted, but what if we no longer had them? We follow Carol as she teaches herself to recognize words again, and then, with great determination and effort, to write and speak again. A strong, resourceful woman, she figured out what she had to do in order to retrain her brain, and did it, with help from astute friends and a supportive family. She had to, since she did not find the professional help she needed. As I struggled along with her, it became clear to me that every speech therapist, nurse, and physician should be required to read this book. Do yourself a favor. Read this book, and then give a copy to a person in the medical community. Someday you or someone you love might be really glad you did.