Jim: In Our Own Words

I was completely paralyzed from the neck down at age two. The hospital was "overwhelmed" with polio patients. My parents were told to take me home, live in quarantine and do the best they could. My little brother (an infant) was quarantined on the next floor. The entire neighborhood knew that polio was in our house and once I recovered, no one would befriend the "cripple".

Photo source: Jim Smith - Philadelphia Society for Crippled Children