Guess what? One of my sisters who I haven’t really talked to in a long time came by on Saturday. We both happened to need something from each other. Not unusual for sisters. But unusual for us, because we never really talk about tough stuff. We shared too much painful history, and its always been easier to ignore the stuff that we grew up with. But we’re both working on it, in our own way.

Anyway, as we were helping each other out, we were chatting, somewhat cautiously at first, then a bit more comfortably. We needed to warm up to the fact that we were actually talking about something more than just the weather.

Out of the blue, she mentioned that she hopes I don’t mind, but she tells clients she works with that I am a good example of someone who has overcome a challenge. (She is a MSW Addictions Counselor).  She said she sometimes uses my story of dealing with my stuttering, finally, after so many years of not dealing with it. I was kind of stunned, because she and I have never talked about stuttering. She said she told “my story” to one of her chemically dependent clients who was talking about his fears of public speaking.

She told me that she told him that ” my sister has done stuff to deal with her fears.”  When he asked, she told him I talk about stuttering now to whoever will listen, I don’t back down, that I’ve been on TV and that I joined Toastmasters.  She said, “I tell people its really cool that you’ve been on TV.”

She asked me if I was alright, because I was just looking at her, stunned, shaking my head. We have never talked about stuttering. I didn’t even know she really knew about stuff I’ve been up to. She has been keeping up with me on the sly!  It made me feel really good to hear her acknowledge  how I have dealt with stuttering to other people.  I am so glad she told me.

We then talked about a couple of other things, and she started telling me how she really misses her son and grand-daughter, who moved out of her home recently. She said she has a “hole in her heart”. We hugged, which we haven’t done in a long time. Here’s hoping we can talk to each other more and patch up that hole.

Have any of you that stutter ever had a similar surprising revelation? How did it make you feel? Is it easy or hard to talk about stuttering with family members?