StoryCorps: I Lost My Voice

This text is a conversation between René Foreman and her daughter, Michelle Foreman, recorded for StoryCorps, a nonprofit oral history organization seeking to collect and preserve the diverse stories of people throughout the United States. After being diagnosed with esophageal cancer, René Foreman received a life-saving surgery that resulted in the loss of her voice. She now speaks with the aid of an electrolarynx, a device that electronically produces a voice when she holds it to her throat.