In this darkly comic memoir, a young woman recounts the steps she took to rebuild her sense of self in the aftermath of two devastating strokes that robbed her of her ability to communicate.

Nina Mitchell was an accomplished Harvard graduate whose world changed forever when her facility with language—and much of her personality—disappeared. Lacking the tools to navigate her old life, Nina was forced to create another one. In After Words, she shares her remarkable journey as she slowly reclaims the power to converse, write, assert her identity, and to be herself—with words.

Nina Mitchell’s After Words is part of Missing, a collection of six true stories about finding, restoring, or accepting the losses that define our lives—from the mysterious to the inspiring. Each story can be read—or listened to—in a single sitting.