{"id":17033,"date":"2019-10-31T17:07:05","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T21:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=17033"},"modified":"2020-10-16T12:29:25","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T16:29:25","slug":"ten-most-bruce-annemarie-albiston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/ten-most-bruce-annemarie-albiston\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Most: Bruce &#038; Annemarie Albiston"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; width: 100%; height: 450px;\" src=\"\/\/e.issuu.com\/embed.html?backgroundColor=%23d2d2d2&amp;backgroundColorFullscreen=%23d2d2d2&amp;d=nov19_flipbook_final&amp;hideIssuuLogo=true&amp;pageNumber=48&amp;u=portlandmagazine\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">November 2019<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"p3\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">6 &amp; 7.\u00a0<span class=\"s1\"><b>The Power of Love<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201c\u2026Yes might mean no. The brain is unbelievable.\u201d<strong>\u2014Annemarie Albiston<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">By Laurie Gallardo<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-16872\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/nov19_10Most-_6-Bruce-7-Annemarie-300x247.jpg\" alt=\"nov19_10Most _6 Bruce + 7 Annemarie\" width=\"300\" height=\"247\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/nov19_10Most-_6-Bruce-7-Annemarie-300x247.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/nov19_10Most-_6-Bruce-7-Annemarie-200x164.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/nov19_10Most-_6-Bruce-7-Annemarie-426x350.jpg 426w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/nov19_10Most-_6-Bruce-7-Annemarie.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>O<\/i><\/span><span class=\"s1\"><i>ne day you wake up and no one can understand you.\u00a0<\/i>In 2005,\u00a0<strong>Annemarie Albiston\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0father suffered a massive stroke, leaving him diagnosed with\u00a0<strong>aphasia<\/strong>. \u201cIt\u2019s a loss of language\u2014<i>not<\/i>\u00a0intellect,\u201d Annemarie says. \u201cIt robs you of your communication. \u201cIt can affect not only your verbal speech but your ability to read and write. My father lost all three. He knew what he wanted to say but couldn\u2019t get it out. Sometimes aphasia can affect comprehension, too, so yes might mean no. The brain is unbelievable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h5 class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Beginnings<\/b><\/span><\/h5>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Annemarie and her husband,\u00a0<strong>Bruce Albiston<\/strong>, opened\u00a0<strong>Aphasia Center of Maine<\/strong>\u00a0in 2012 and\u00a0<strong>Adaptive Outdoor\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Education Center<\/strong>\u00a0in 2015. The Andre R. Hemond Aphasia Retreat\u2014named in honor of Annemarie\u2019s father\u2014is held every fall. It\u2019s a social gathering to support people living with aphasia; both those diagnosed and their loved ones.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cDuring one of our first retreats,\u201d Annemarie says, \u201cI had breakfast with a couple. The wife had aphasia and spoke zero words. Her husband stepped out for coffee, so I sat and chatted with her. \u2018Do you have children?\u2019 She nodded. \u2018How many?\u2019 She held up her fingers. When her husband returned, I casually mentioned she told me they had children. He was shocked. \u2018Nobody ever has a conversation with her. How did you do that?\u2019 I\u2019d learned the secret from my father. You love them for the people they are.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">A<\/span><span class=\"s2\">phasia Connections\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"s1\">hosts cafe get-togethers and fun group activities. \u201c<strong>Weekend Craftcations<\/strong>\u00a0are for making crafts.\u201d Annemarie\u2019s sincere, encouraging smile conveys a warming candor. \u201cBut some people don\u2019t give a hoot about doing that. They just want to be together. The whole point is to give people the best quality of life. Everyone we meet has the same story\u2014friends and family desert them. They think aphasia means they\u2019re not the same person anymore, but they are. There\u2019s life after stroke.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cTo do something inclusive for all ages and disabilities, we built the lodge at\u00a0<strong>Sugarloaf<\/strong>,\u201d Bruce says. Enter the Adaptive Outdoor Education Center in Carrabassett Valley. Activities range from rock climbing to skiing. \u201cThe folks we work with have had so much therapy in their lives. Instead, we give them experiences they\u2019re going to remember.\u201d Bruce says. \u201cWe don\u2019t just go for a sail\u2014we teach people how to sail.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">The Albistons are adding more housing to the lodge. Next stop is an event space in Greater Portland. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to grow the number of people we serve,\u201d Bruce says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cOur youngest [attendee] had a stroke when she was 9. She\u2019s 15 now,\u201d Annemarie says. \u201cWe met Emma a few months after her stroke. The first time she came to our retreat, her father had tears in his eyes watching his little girl relax and have fun. Now they\u2019re a huge part of our community. The people here are my heart and soul. Sometimes it\u2019s like being with my dad again. He passed eight and a half years ago. These folks are our family.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>November 2019 6 &amp; 7.\u00a0The Power of Love \u201c\u2026Yes might mean no. The brain is unbelievable.\u201d\u2014Annemarie Albiston By Laurie Gallardo One day you wake up and no one can understand you.\u00a0In 2005,\u00a0Annemarie Albiston\u2019s\u00a0father suffered a massive stroke, leaving him diagnosed with\u00a0aphasia. \u201cIt\u2019s a loss of language\u2014not\u00a0intellect,\u201d Annemarie says. \u201cIt robs you of your communication. \u201cIt [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-extras","category-the-women-of-maine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17034,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17033\/revisions\/17034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}