‘It took me 2 hours to find my hotel’ – Lira shares intimate details about her stroke

South African singer Lerato Moipone, professionally known as Lira, celebrated her 44^th birthday on 14 March, even giving a speech to guests on this special occasion.

The songstress suffered a stroke while travelling in Germany in March 2022, which impacted her ability to speak, write and read.  

While the stroke didn’t affect the Feel Good hitmaker physically, losing her speech meant that she was unable to perform.

Lira has shared her progress in various updates about her health to her fans on her social media accounts over the last year, the most recent update being that she was able to give a speech at her 44^th birthday celebration.

ALSO READ: Keke Palmer shares comforting words to Nadia Nakai

Lira’s road to recovery

In a two-part tell-all Instagram post on Wednesday, the singer shared that she had to learn to speak as if she was a child, learning how to say each letter and forming a sentence.

She proudly shared that she has made such huge progress and even gave a speech at her birthday party.

The songstress said that she has enjoyed listening and the silence during the last year while she learnt to speak again.  

“I’ve learnt to be happier. I’ve learnt to enjoy the simple things. Life is a gift and I hope to celebrate the gift of life for many years,” Lira wrote in an Instagram post.

How the stroke happened

After three years of being unable to travel due to the Covid pandemic, Lira said she was so happy to be in Germany.

She travelled alone to Frankfurt and was planning on meeting up with the rest of the band who were en route from Sweden.

Arriving two days before her performance was set to take place, Lira used the extra time to explore. It was during one of these sightseeing walks when she had her stroke – but she had no idea what was happening to her, neither could she explain it to anyone or ask for help.

One year after the stroke, the songstress took to Instagram to share with her fans exactly what happened on that fateful day:

“At about 4.15pm I had a stroke, the sensation lasted about 15 minutes. I had no idea what was happening, so I kept walking and nobody could see that I had a stroke because I was walking normally.

I walked into a restaurant but I couldn’t talk. I moved my mouth but words couldn’t come out. When I realised this, I just broke down. The staff at the restaurant offered me a seat. I couldn’t communicate. I thought about asking them the direction to my hotel, it was nearby, but I couldn’t communicate that. Once I stopped crying and got myself together, I left. It took me 2 hours to find my hotel.

It was about 7pm when I got to my hotel. I couldn’t communicate with the receptionist so I just took a shower and tried to communicate via WhatsApp, but I could not type. The words made absolutely no sense to me. I couldn’t figure out what the letters meant and how to put them together.
I managed to get a hold of someone special to me- and got them to understand that I wasn’t alright.

23 March – Long story short – I fell asleep and in the morning my agent tried to reach me. She sent two people to my room and they figured out that I couldn’t speak. The German promoter came and called the ambulance. The paramedics couldn’t speak English and it’s only when I got to hospital that I found out that I had a stroke.
Wow! I was shocked. I cried the whole day – and in the morning I accepted my situation,” Lira shared.

Fans and industry peers streamed to the comments section of Lira’s honest posts, thanking her for sharing these private details with them and wishing her well in the rest of her recovery.

NOW READ: What is Aphasia, the condition Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with?