My wife had rented a house in Bicton, Perth, where I went to live. After about another month or so my official rehab had finished. Now it was ongoing life rehab. This meant I was solely responsible for my own improvement. I found it was quite hard to fit into normal life. People can see a broken arm or leg, but a broken head is another thing.

I knew I needed to fit into the community.

I had an idea to venture out to shopping malls. I always headed for the rest chairs in the centre where I could wait and watch in the hope that I could start up a conversation.

One time I planned to chat to a kind looking woman sitting near me. Then my stroke speech kicked in and I cocked it all up. She looked puzzled and I decided to walk away quickly. She thought I was some sort of a weirdo.

I retreated out of the shopping mall and went home thinking what a fool I had made of myself. I also thought that I could be reported to the police for harassing a woman. I clearly didn’t think what the consequences could have been.

The next day I went back and saw a friendly man and had a bit more luck. I soon worked out that busy shopping centres provide a platform and opportunities for a stroke victim to practice interactions with others. You would fortunately never see the same person twice. I was still wary in case I did. In spite of this, many times I found I would walk away in embarrassment. I used to change locations just in case I was reported by someone.

I found a good coffee shop with lots of foreign backpackers, often they couldn’t understand me, and I couldn’t understand them. That suited me fine as we could share a basic level of sometimes humorous communication.

I found homeless people good to talk with, they were nonjudgmental, and I found I didn’t really have to say much but my listening skills improved.

Eventually I got over my fear of approaching strangers and I became much braver.

I was slowly building confidence.

As well as getting my brain active I was keen to do some physical work apart from rowing exercises. A good chance came when my wife’s brother-in-law, in Geraldton, fell ill and I offered to help finish renovating his house. I worked there for about 3 months on and off and was practicing my skills in the hope of being employed when my income protection had finished.

(to be continued …)