She had to 'start over from scratch' after a stroke at 41. Now, she wants to help others

Michelle Fowler doesn't want having a stroke in her 40s keep her down.

She talks about the morning of Jan. 8, 2020, as an "interruption," but there's no denying that her life changed forever on that day.

"I had to start over from scratch. I was like a baby. I had to learn to talk. Learn to walk. Learn to eat. Learn to calculate stuff," she says.

"It took me a long time to figure out how to communicate with people."

Fowler was 41 years old at the time, working as a border guard at the Hereford crossing south of the town of Coaticook in Quebec's Eastern Townships.

As a result of her stroke, she now lives with two kinds of disabilities.

She has partial paralysis down the right side of her body. It affects the grip strength of her dominant hand and requires special adaptations to her car so that she can drive using her left foot.

The second challenge, which she calls her "invisible disability," is aphasia: a language-processing disorder.

'It didn't destroy me'

"People think I'm stupid when they're talking to me and I don't get it," she says. "I'm not stupid. I need time and patience to finish my thoughts."

Fowler is now on a mission to use her experiences of stroke and rehabilitation to make an active difference in the lives of others.

"The stroke has empowered me, even. It didn't destroy me as I thought it would," she says.

Fowler's advocacy comes in different forms. She recently joined the board of the Association des personnes handicapées de la MRC de Coaticook, and in December she plans to start meeting with students in the special care counselling program at Champlain College in Lennoxville, Que.

To prepare, Fowler has been working closely with Isabelle Duquette, a regional psychosocial worker with L'Association des accidentés Cérébrovasculaires et Traumatisés crâniens de l'Estrie (ACTE).

ACTE provides rehabilitation support to people who have experienced strokes or serious head trauma. Duquette says a big part of that work is helping clients adapt to their new realities.

"There needs to be an understanding that this affects the brain.… Even after they have recuperated physically, what remains is a lot of fatigue," Duquette says.

"Their brains will get tired more quickly, which will lead to forgetting more and being more disorganized."

Duquette says a big challenge during recovery is the patient accepting they can't go back to the person they used to be, and finding new ways to spend their time.

"That takes time, because we're not looking at those questions at the start. But I think Michelle is really there now," Duquette says.

"She wants to give back, and I want to support her in that because she has a good story to tell."

Fowler is looking forward to her meeting with students in December; she is committed to making the most of the time she has.

"I think it is very important that [the students] see what a disabled person needs and what support you can extend to this person," she says.

"Be conscious. Be kind. Just support them, be there for them and don't discard them as if they are no good anymore."

This story is part of CBC Quebec's community bureau project.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.