THE EMOTIONAL ASPECT – No. 3

Part of coping emotionally with this (or any) disease is the ability to maintain and enjoy a sense of humour. Being able to see the funny side of things helps to offset and interrupt the heaviness that can rear its head now and again.

We have laughed often at ourselves and have built a large collection of happy memories and humorous moments upon which to draw when necessary. I will relate two of them here that have to do with the deterioration of my voice.

The first happened just over a year after my diagnosis. My speech had slowed down quite a bit, but people were able to understand me easily. Easily enough that I was asked by the leader of our church to preach one Sunday. I enjoyed the preparation immensely and felt that God had given a message for the church. But I had a problem. How could I put people at ease when they could see the effort it took for me to speak? In other words, how could I ensure that my voice wasn’t a distraction from the message I wanted to get across?

God gave me the answer as I was going over my sermon the day before. The next morning I introduced my sermon by saying, “You will notice that this disease has affected my voice causing me to speak quite slowly. As a result, I have some good news, and I have some bad news. The good is for those of you taking notes of the message this morning: You should have no problem keeping up! The bad news for all of us is that we may finish just in time for the evening prayer meeting!” The ice was broken, and the sermon went well.

The second incident involved Nicky’s uncle and a few other family members and friends. It took place about two years after my diagnosis when my speech had become increasingly difficult to understand. We were all sitting in our flat after lunch when the conversation somehow turned to Sylvester Stallone and his performances in the Rocky movies. Responding to a comment on Stallone’s dialogue in these movies, Nicky’s uncle suggested that I could do as well in that role. On cue, I let rip with the trademark line, “Adrian!” When we finished laughing, all agreed that it had been a near-perfect impersonation!