March 19, 2006:
John and Mary's Waltz
Listen John and Mary's Waltz (runs 23:48) John and Mary's Waltz
Due to copyright issues, the music has been removed from this piece.
John and Mary Ryan are from Westfield, New Jersey. John has a condition called aphasia, a speech disorder he developed after a stroke. Now he is trying to get back the words he lost more than four years ago.
For two consecutive summers, John enrolled in an intensive speech rehabilitation program offered by Dalhousie University in Halifax. He worked with speech language specialists and other members of the program to learn how to communicate again. Right beside him, through it all, was his wife Mary.
The CBC's Kim Garritty met with the Ryans last summer to see how far along they were on the road back to speech. As Kim discovered, the two of them have to learn new rhythms, and how to move through any situation.
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