Faith, Survival, and Being Taken Away During Polio

The story continues in my mother’s words.

My mother was around the age she contracted polio in 1935

“The story continues in my mother’s words.”

One Wednesday evening, while I was sick, Uncle George took my mother to a prayer meeting at a church. They went in and were seated, and the pianist stopped playing, turned to the congregation, and said, “Come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Mother asked Uncle George why she said that. He said, “Said what?” She repeated it, and he said, “Only you heard it. She was speaking in tongues.” That gave her the strength to keep on, even when she considered suicide.

My brother Ed asked her if there would be angels when she left me alone in the hospital.

If there was no money, there was no medical attention. You either lived or you died. My family did everything, and  I lived. By the end of October, I was able to sit in a chair.

That’s when the Shriners came in, because we had no money. On October 29, 1935, the Shriners took me to Elyria, Ohio, Memorial Hospital. That’s what Shriners Hospital did. By then, the disease was over, but I was left with paralysis.

Shriners took care of crippled children with polio. I was there from October until Easter. My mother lived three hundred miles away.

Once or twice a month, she could come to visit.