A life relived
An actress lost the ability to talk and remember, but fought to get her world back
STANDING at the checkout of a Trader Joe’s in Los Angeles, Lauren Marks was drawn into a flirtatious conversation with the cashier. When his quick-fire banter proved too difficult to follow, her comebacks slowed and she started slurring her words.
“His expression turned to horror,” recalls the now-36-year-old of the June 2008 incident. “He must have thought I was drunk or so severely disabled that he was somehow taking advantage of me.”
In truth, Marks was recovering from a brain aneurysm that had resulted in aphasia, a seldom discussed but common disorder that strikes approximately one in 250 Americans, and affects the ability to understand and express speech. Marks was forced to learn language from scratch.
She has chronicled her experiences in a memoir, “A Stitch of Time: The Year a Brain Injury Changed My Language and Life” (Simon & Schuster, out Tuesday). “One in every 50 people has an aneurysm [in their brain], and they live and die with it,” she tells The Post. “Mine ruptured.”
It happened on Aug. 23, 2007, when the then-Brooklyn-based actress was in Edinburgh, Scotland, to perform in its annual theater festival. She collapsed while doing karaoke at a bar. “I don’t remember when I stopped singing,” she writes. “I don’t re- member the fall.”
She was rushed to the hospital for brain surgery, while her frantic parents in Los Angeles caught a plane to Scotland. When she awoke from the operation, she could barely speak. Moments later, she first experienced what she terms “the Quiet.”
“It was not just my external language that was ailing,” she recalls in her memoir. “My inner dialogue — my self-directed speech — had also gone almost immediately mute.”
The Quiet made her less able to relate to others.
“My parents were having a terrifying experience [because of my condition, but] I wasn’t thinking, ‘What has caused my mom’s pain?’ ” Marks says.
Aphasia can also impact memory. Marks had to be reminded she had a younger brother, and it took months and even years for her to recall certain incidents.
In the UK and then in Los Angeles at her parents’ home, Marks went through intensive speech and language therapy. Her speech is now back to normal.
“Every day was a new development for me, and every discovery was so magical,” she says.
Marks, who moved to Pasadena, Calif., is now married to Lebanon native Sevag Kechichian, 38. She gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Isaac, nine months ago.
“I feel like I’ve been given a second chance and a whole new life,” she says.
“My inner dialogue had also gone mute.” — Lauren Marks on her aphasia