why I called myself Thallery Thail

When I was young I had a lisp and mispronounced a number of letters.  My mother said this was caused from sucking my thumb, which in turn had caused a large space between my teeth.  At any rate the letters “F” and “V” came out as “TH’.  I do not remember being teased about this, or even that my teachers commented on my speech, it was simply a part of me.

This all changed the Christmas vacation I was ten.  My Uncle Earle arrived to take me to his place for holidays. Earle was one of my Mother’s older brothers and father to Charlotte, Brenda (my partner in crime who is oft mentioned in the blog) and Arlene. They lived some thirty miles away in a rural area of Lindsey near the town of Woodstock.  Uncle Earle was my favorite relative; the smartest, best story teller, champion of literacy and female enlightenment; I could go on and on.

Uncle Earle

As we were travelling to Lindsey Uncle Earle said, “You are too old and too smart to continue calling yourself Thallery Thail (Valerie Vail) so we will just correct that during your visit”.   There was no dispute from me.  The first day was spent with Uncle Earl giving me sounds and words to repeat, and then he watched my lips and mouth and made notes. By the second day the diagnosis was made.  As was the case with all items of importance, this was done at the dinner table with Uncle Earle, Aunt Effie, the girls and I in attendance.  “Your tongue gets in the road, but I think I know what to do.”  Then Uncle Earle proceeded to show me how to put my front teeth out over my bottom lip whenever an “F” or a “V” occurred.  And it worked!

My speech therapy had some other positive effects.   I had been a very rapid speaker.  Now I must mentally preview all my conversation spelling out each word to “set up” for my offending letters.  Suddenly my thoughts need be much more important to make it out as speech. 

I went home in ten days, I was Valerie Vail.   I could talk about funny, fabulous fruits and Valentines with violets.  I had been released from my imposed word prison.  The slower speech continued and also my voice took on a quieter modulation.  In the next year my Grandmother Rogers, Uncle Earle’s mother suffered a stroke and lost most of her speech.  Uncle Earle arrived with flash cards and instructions for me to teach/coach Grammy.  And we did, She angry and determined, me eager and filled with pride at being the teacher. 

When I was seventeen I had a head injury and developed a facial paralysis. A complication of this was that I lost my speech.  This was in the 1960’s and there was no medical intervention. However, using those skills taught to me by Uncle Earle, I was soon speaking once more.  You would think it ends there or that I choose a career in audiology (I did not even know that profession existed) but no, there is more. 

With my challenges most would shun public speaking but this has not been my case. This past fifty years I have participated in countless speaking engagements from radio and television, storytelling, facilitations, political debate, spokesperson supply minister and more.  I have addressed crowds of thousands with no qualms.  And yes, I miss words, or forget them.  I handle this by speaking slowly and it I hit a road block, I stop.  I stop and look the crowd over, make eye contact. Those thirty seconds that it takes to shuffle my mental file cabinet and find the word only serves to heighten the interest of the audience. Several local sound people have mentioned how much they like working with me because of my slow measured speech.

My daughters, Vavielle and Leisa, also loved to visit Uncle Earle and Aunt Effie.  With a house filled with books and magazines, unlimited learning opportunities and one on one mentoring the house in Lindsey was their own private science museum.

When I was fifty five I suffered a stroke,   the right side of my face dropped even more, I tripped over my tongue, speech was again difficult.    And again, I remembered the lessons of my childhood and bit by bit I was able to bring my speech up to par.  I still have problems getting words out, but that is a brain cramp and not with the speech. Uncle Earle’s method’s assist with these challenges as well.   

Uncle Earle has been dead almost fifteen years; someone is going to correct me on this, but I think of him daily.  I am fortunate to now have the privilege of spending several weeks a years living with Aunt Effie.  We talk about my speech therapy.  Uncle Earle was not flying solo on that.   His whole family had invested time and energy researching speech defects and working with me that week.  And they provided back up and coaching over the next few years. Another positive was for my younger brothers who had unknowingly been copying my lisp.   Their speech corrected as well. 

Thank you Uncle Earle; you are still my hero.  And no one asked me why I called myself Thallery Thail.