The day had started out fine as I was feeling happy with myself although just a bit tired after having been to two weddings in the past two days and today there was three more to attended so seeing that I was so worn out from all the confusions at the weddings my wife said she would go to weddings alone today which meant I would be left at home by myself for some time and I said no problem I can cope with that today, so with that peace of mind of she went assuring me that she would return in between each weeding.
Well everything was fine as I sat typing at the computer until the phone rang which immediately sent me into a panic as I hesitantly picked up the phone and said hello in Indonesian, to my surprise it was a lady speaking in broken English asking to speck to Mr Barry to which I said yes that’s me, (so far so good) but then she went rattling on in her broken English of which I could not understand a word of what she was saying except that she was an English teacher from one of the schools in town that I had use to visit once a week as an English language lecturer to help the students with there English communication skills and that they wanted me to visit the school again, but there I was stuttering and mumbling down the phone trying to explain to her that I could not visit the schools anymore due to my condition of which I tried to explain to her and certainly not to stand in front of 40 students trying to speak,
at which point she said ‘Oh you don’t remember me! Then I bring the students to your house’
By this time I was becoming extremely agitated and confused as dementia was starting to take control and I could almost feel my blood pressure rising like mercury in a thermometer and for some unknown reason realized that I was looking into the mouth piece of the phone as I was trying to talk to her with the phone shaking like a jelly in my hand, fortunately at that moment my wife came in the door and took control of the conversation and explained about the illness.
But it’s made me realize just how much my own verbal English language skills have diminished which can be a very traumatic and frustrating situation for us as in my own case I knew in my brain what I wanted to say but to get the words out verbally and coherently was just imposable sending me into waves of confusion and near to tears in complete exasperation at that moment in time, and for anyone like myself who had been use to doing public speaking and seminars to large audiences it comes as an added blow when you cant even communicate in your own native tongue, but then I do realize I’m not alone with this problem.
Well everything was fine as I sat typing at the computer until the phone rang which immediately sent me into a panic as I hesitantly picked up the phone and said hello in Indonesian, to my surprise it was a lady speaking in broken English asking to speck to Mr Barry to which I said yes that’s me, (so far so good) but then she went rattling on in her broken English of which I could not understand a word of what she was saying except that she was an English teacher from one of the schools in town that I had use to visit once a week as an English language lecturer to help the students with there English communication skills and that they wanted me to visit the school again, but there I was stuttering and mumbling down the phone trying to explain to her that I could not visit the schools anymore due to my condition of which I tried to explain to her and certainly not to stand in front of 40 students trying to speak,
at which point she said ‘Oh you don’t remember me! Then I bring the students to your house’ By this time I was becoming extremely agitated and confused as dementia was starting to take control and I could almost feel my blood pressure rising like mercury in a thermometer and for some unknown reason realized that I was looking into the mouth piece of the phone as I was trying to talk to her with the phone shaking like a jelly in my hand, fortunately at that moment my wife came in the door and took control of the conversation and explained about the illness.
But it’s made me realize just how much my own verbal English language skills have diminished which can be a very traumatic and frustrating situation for us
as in my own case I knew in my brain what I wanted to say but to get the words out verbally and coherently was just imposable sending me into waves of confusion and near to tears in complete exasperation at that moment in time, and for anyone like myself who had been use to doing public speaking and seminars to large audiences it comes as an added blow when you cant even communicate in your own native tongue, but then I do realize I’m not alone with this problem.
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