Lia Chapman Post Stroke Fund

My name is Laina Thomas and my friend Lia is having a tough time and truly needs our help.

 

In March of 2021, she had a major stroke. She has been in a post-acute hospital ever since and is facing an uncertain future.

 

If you know Lia from before this disaster, you know her as a bright little ball of fire. Full of joy and heartache and committed to her family and friends. She was there for me during some hard stuff and I promised I would be there if she needed me.

 

Many of us remember her from high school. Lia went to the L.A. County High School for the Arts (LACHSA) where she studied theater. We were the beneficiaries of an arts education that rivaled many university programs. We were there the year that school opened and we both, like so many of our classmates, felt that LACHSA saved our lives.

 

But Lia has a special affinity for LACHSA because of the way she was treated there. As it happens, she was born with no fingers and no toes. So, in the eyes of her mother, the law, and society at large, she was handicapped. Someone who would need constant help.

 

But during her time at LACHSA, people, as a rule, didn’t treat her as disabled. She kept up just fine with everyone else, and by the time we graduated, most people didn’t think about her disability at all. They just treated her like any other teenager. The crazy thing about the story is that when we discuss this amongst our classmates, even today, it’s just how it was. The most normal thing in the world. But in fact, this was the only time in Lia’s life that people DIDN’T treat her like she was helpless and broken. Lia is a LACHSA superfan for life.

 

After studying more theater at PCPA, and working as an actor for a short time, eventually, Lia ended up moving back home to help care for her mother. Her life wasn’t easy. Money created constant problems but she had a strong sense of responsibility when it came to her family.

 

At the end of 2020, Lia’s mother was diagnosed with cancer. Then in March of 2021, Lia had a major stroke. To many of us, for 6 months or more, she was just missing. Eventually, we learned that Lia was alive and living in a post-acute facility.

 

Lia’s mom passed away on Sept. 11, 2021, and her brother Anthony was suddenly left to care for Lia and support the full rent of their home on his own.

 

As rough as all of that is, there are some good reasons to have hope. Lia has already come a very long way in her recovery. The stroke hurt her pretty bad. She is still herself, our Lia, but a very slowed-down version of her. Physically, she is not too bad. She walks and can do things for herself. However, her memory and speech were badly damaged.

 

The term “aphasia” has been getting some attention lately because Bruce Willis has announced that he is struggling with it. And it has definitely become a part of Lia’s reality too. It is the kind of condition where she knows what she wants to say but the meaning of a word in her mind can sometimes be misspoken on its way out of her mouth. For example, she might mean to say “thoughtful” but the word that comes out is “romantic.” It’s close, but not entirely what she meant.

 

Her memory is exhausting for her to deal with. She may start with a fully formed thought in her mind, but loses the thread after a few words. She is constantly grasping for words in an attempt to express an entire thought before it floats away. It comes back eventually or if she’s reminded but it’s so frustrating and time consuming. It’s a comfort to know how far she has come from the early days after the stroke when she couldn’t speak at all.

 

It’s important to recognize that Lia’s progress has been entirely on her own. She has received good care, but generally it has been the minimum amount available. She received no visitors besides her brother for the first 9 months and since then, her friends and I have organized at least some more phone calls and interactions as much as we can. I’ve been to visit once, but I don’t live in the same state so it’s nearly impossible to go as much as I want to. I can only imagine her frustration and loneliness.

 

The time for her to leave the post-acute facility is fast approaching. Lia really wants to take this opportunity to restart her life as an independent woman. She is definitely going to need help to get there, but here are some concrete things we can do with the money from this fund to set her up for success.

 

 

These goals seem like the minimum needed to set her up for a post-stroke future. I can think of a thousand more therapies, programs, and custom-made objects like shoes that would infinitely improve her life and I hope to help her find productive ways to occupy her time, but the 4 goals above will have the greatest immediate impact.

 

Please help me help my friend Lia. She needs us all.

 

 

Thank you,

 

Laina Thomas

Lia’s friend and former classmate at LACHSA