Polio & Childhood Illness

I grew up watching my mother fall—physically and emotionally—after surviving polio. One afternoon at a dental school parking lot, my lunch money became our way home and taught me something I’ve never forgotten about love, dignity, and resilience.

I wondered about that then. I understand it now. Too often, we struggle with things that are better left behind.

As a child with polio in 1935, survival depended on faith, family, and circumstance. With no money for care, the Shriners stepped in, transporting her to an Ohio hospital after the disease passed, leaving paralysis and months of separation from her mother.

When my mother was eight years old, she became ill during the summer polio outbreak. After a misdiagnosis, a spinal tap confirmed poliomyelitis. The health department quarantined the house, and for months her mother kept her alive through isolation, fear, and relentless care during one of the most dangerous eras of childhood illness.