Sunshine

Johanne, Reuben's at-home speech therapist for the last 14 months, walked out of the front door and we bid our fond farewells. Today is the last session as part of early intervention.

And so a little sunshine left with her, yet not before it spilt its fiery glow on Reuben. If there was ever a force outside our family to help him to speak, it was Johanne.

My mind races back to April last year, so hard is it to believe now that Reuben was unable to utter a sound, not a laugh, cry nor word. I remember hearing sounds and wondering, is that vocal, til I realised that no, it was just a sound of the air vibrating in the corridor of the trach. When his throat became clear enough through surgery and healing to wear a speech valve which allows air to be breathed in through his trach, but not out, thus forcing air to pass by and the tickle the vocal chords into making sound, and then to have his trach blocked throughout the day, those sounds could then start to filter through. Yet his vocal chords then needed exercising: they'd never been used before. These months have been a great achievement: Reuben is, I guess you could say, bilingual. He signs ASL which I've taught him and speaks at the same time. With hearing loss and multiple throat surgeries, I am amazed now to hear the sweetness of his voice babbling, saying his ABCs or counting to 10 in the morning to let me know he's awake. The strength of his voice grows daily, especially now the trach is gone. Every session with Johanne has been like a huge party, a great celebration, a time for the boys to scurry to the front door awaiting her arrival and to help her with her mountain of toys via a backpack when she departs.

Life is all about change, and some changes to routine and the departure of those who are helping us along in our special journey, are very hard to accept.

Thank you Johanne for everything.

Caught up on backblips from here.