A letter to Regan Scott

Regan Scott! You are one of my heroes. And at 14 you have told me — you’ve told the world — your story (“How it feels to have a stutter,” The Telegram July 29th).

I salute you, I salute your courage. In writing to The Telegram you have reached out to all and in so doing have made us part of your story and maybe even part of the solution to what bothers you.

You know already that the first step in solving any problem is to recognize it, admit that it is causing you grief and then reach out to all who might be able to help you. Congratulations!

As a boy growing up in central Newfoundland, I was aware of what torment and yes, what embarrassment stuttering could be to those with the challenging impediment. But there was this one person who not only seemed to overcome his challenge, but could light up the very room in which he tried to speak.

“What I am trying to say is that there are people like you all over the world and many of them make the world a better place for having been challenged.”

This man, whose first name was Reg, lived in one of the smaller communities to the north and east of Grand Falls. He was a logger by trade and on his way home from Badger during the weekends he would stop into our house for a little refreshment and, if the spirit moved him, a little kitchen party.

You see Regan, Reg probably had one of the greatest stuttering challenges imaginable, and unless you paid very close attention it was very easy to lose his line of reasoning. In other words, it took him a long time to get any word out — but wait!

Reg was also a singer. No, not classically trained, not even a professional performer. He was what we might call a folk singer, although if I remember correctly his vein was country songs. When he opened his mouth to sing, not only did the room light up, but he hardly missed a beat or a word. And when he started to sing, his head always came up and his eyes took on that special aliveness that told us all nothing would defeat this man — nothing. His voice lifted us all and we had to join in.

I don’t suggest for a moment that you sing your words. What I am trying to say is that there are people like you all over the world and many of them make the world a better place for having been challenged. And I don’t have to tell you that living is hard at the best of times and each one of us faces challenges big and small — some much greater than what you face and some, less.

A woman named Grandma Moses (Harriet Tubman) helped lead her people out of slavery in the southern United States and on to freedom in southern Ontario and Nova Scotia. President Abe Lincoln delivered one of the world’s great speeches/orations at Gettysburg and went on to end slavery, thus liberating Grandma Moses and all her people.

And I mention these incredible leaders because they could have spoken or written words that might help you.

You’ve already said that one of the ways to overcome a speech impediment is to practice speaking, and I believe that if you go to the local library or to MUN’S QEII you will find the world’s great speeches/orations that you could practice delivering as though they were your own.

I can see you reading the speeches of Susan B. Anthony, Sir John A. Macdonald or Nelson Mandela, while leading your imaginary troops onward to victory or your political audience to power.

Medically I have no idea how you might overcome your challenge, Regan, for I have no such expertise. I am, however, a lover of words and a great believer in their power to help us overcome our greatest difficulties.

Your letter indicates that you are destined for wonderful things and I do understand the busyness of modern life doesn’t give you a lot of time for speech improvement. Yet words might become your very life and I feel certain you will find the time to do what you must do.

I wish you every success. Wayne Norman

St. John’s