A 63-year-old right-handed female health care worker and driver developed a speech disturbance 12 months prior to assessment. A stammer progressed and word production diminished to single words. She could still understand commands, but sometimes these required repetition. Her family thought her memory was preserved but she was upset when she realised that she had put dog food into a freezer. Her handwriting remained clear. She had usually written in capitals. Although her spelling had never been perfect, she also started to leave out words. Short phrases could be repeated to her daughter but she lost that ability to speak over a few months. Her daughter had not witnessed grammatical errors or obvious omissions of small joining words in her spontaneous speech.