BACK TO THE FUTURE

DENSE FOG   VISIBILITY LIMITED  was the warning on the highway sign at the base of the Malahat as Ron and I drove south to Victoria on February 15^th. In fact, the warning told us nothing new since we had encountered the above conditions for the previous 70 kilometres. From Nanaimo south the fields were still snowbound. A thick mist, caused by warm temperatures and heavy rain, rose from the fields creating the fog.

Ron had been invited by speech therapist Dana Haydon to speak to one of her therapy groups which meets in the Community Room in the Uptown Mall in Victoria every Wednesday. The people who attend this group suffer from aphasia caused by a stroke or other brain injury. Aphasia is the inability to comprehend and formulate language. Intelligence is unaffected, but the people who Dana works with have difficulty reading, writing and speaking. Often they cannot find the right words to express what they want to say.

As children, it takes us years upon years to learn to speak, to read and to write. Many of the people in Dana’s group have to go back to basics and re-learn these precious accomplishments. The logic behind the Uptown Mall location is that the group is able to take what they learn in the Community Room and immediately go out into the real world and, with the help of Dana or her fellow speech pathologist, Janine, put these re-learned skills into immediate use. The powerful message which Ron brings to groups like Dana’s is to never give up, to re-assure them that healing continues to happen, that it never stops. The gift he receives in return is the warmth, support and gratitude from courageous people overcoming daunting and frustrating obstacles, all of whom yesterday insisted on buying his book, determined they will soon even be able to read it.

I found my first visit to the Uptown Mall somewhat disorienting. Despite the Steve Nash Fitness World located near the Community Room, which told me I must definitely be in the 21^st century, I kept getting a Yogi Berra sense of déjà vu all over again. From the moment I angle parked on Uptown Boulevard and stepped out onto a street reminiscent of town centres from the nineteen forties and fifties I felt like I had gone back to the future. Even the parking was free. Now tell me, where can you still find that, these days?