Aphasia

A book club meets online to discuss their latest read, “Orphan Train.”

Participants were thrilled to see each other and one traveled to the party from Temecula, Rhee says. When the pandemic started, the group was “a lifeline because people were already isolated,” she says. “It’s important that someone will notice if they’re not there,” she says. Eight of the nine group members had a stroke and the other person had a traumatic brain injury. Those students ask to run the group each semester, Rhee says. “The idea is that by slowly increasing their participation, it decreases their disability.” They even bonded over a book they all ended up hating, Rhee says. By the time people come to the group, they’ve already exhausted whatever treatments and outpatient therapy are covered by their insurance, Rhee says. Rhee chooses a few books the group might be interested in, then they vote on their next read. “It was like a month. Rhee heard about the They first launch into a lively discussion about the previous day’s Super Bowl.