Tell Me Thursday - Oscar Winner

It's very possible that you don't recognize the man sitting with Nate.  He is David Seidler, and he won an Oscar for his amazing screenplay for The King's Speech.  He was also the keynote speaker at the National Stuttering Conference this year.

Nate chose to skip the kids' workshop in order to hear him speak.  He told his life story -- of how he stuttered as a child, how he and his family evacuated England during WWII, how he coped with his stutter.  He shared his story beautifully, and I learned a lot about him that I didn't know. He shared that he had promised the Queen Mother not to write King Bertie's story until after she had passed away, and also that he felt it was a mistake to re-release the movie with a PG-13 rating.  (The original movie is rated R for language.  He felt it was completely appropriate in the scene where it was used, and felt that it took away from the story to remove it.)

During his speech, he said "love and support are more important than mechanical devices" when thinking about how to help people who stutter.  I have to say that I wholeheartedly agree with him! 

He was also extremely gracious and took time not only after his speech, but also the following morning to sign autographs and pose for pictures.  This picture was taken the morning before we headed to the airport to fly home.  Definitely a special memory, and a wonderful picture!
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