Living through Polio and Covid-19: Historic Parallels

"I was told as a young child by the physical therapists that I would have to work harder and be better, than those who were not disabled. 'The world doesn’t owe you a living' I was told.”

She remembers the day she felt too tired to feed those chickens, and was too tired to hold her 9-month-old niece. Finally, the family doctor was called and her parents were told she had the “the flu or grippe”

Marty has overcome the difficulties of her physical limitations due to childhood Polio so that she can enjoy time on the water with her family.

Barry McMahon, a 72-year-old retired film and video producer, received a diagnosis of acute paralytic polio in 1951 when he was 3 years old.

“Late in the summer of 1952, a microscopic virus entered my body and changed my life forever . . .”

I contracted polio when I was 5. We lived in West Virginia, where there was only a small clinic. . .

Have you ever wondered? And really closed your eyes, If only for a moment, And thought of special times.

As polio survivors we understand. Spinal taps, visits only through a window and no touch between a child an their parent.

“Parents of children today don’t have any idea of the fear that took ovr the country in the summers of the 1940’s and 50’s.” Joe Randig for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

I contracted polio in Amarillo, Texas in October 1952, when I was 3 1/2 years old. No one in my family knows where I might have contracted the virus.