Some people remember things that go way back into their childhood and some do not recall much of their early years at all. I have some early memories that stand out in my mind. The earliest memory that I had to was that we were going to have a new baby in the family. I remember exactly where we were driving while my parents discussed what they would name the new baby. Don after my Dad if it were a boy and Donna, also after my Dad if it was a girl. I remember getting out of the car and my mother's favorite yellow rose on the white picket fence in my grandmother's back yard. It is interesting how little things will stick in your mind.
There was a fire across the street. The fire trucks came. It was really nothing however, while the family was distracted. I found a pair of scissors and cut off half my curls. Wow, was my mother upset. I never had natural curls again.
I remember my mother going into labor. The next day my grandmother, Nana, sitting at the phone talking to my Dad about the new baby ....A Boy! I asked my grandmother what he looked like she said he was red all over. I said," like an Indian? Does he have a Feather behind his ear?" I was so excited I wanted to see my brother right away. But, I had to wait, Donnie was born on December 13, (our family's lucky number 13). He was my Christmas present. I was in love.
The next memory that I had was of everyone taking his photo and asking me to move over so they could get a picture of the baby. I still remember feeling left out and a little jealous.
Some time that spring mother found some open rat poison that I had been looking at. I told them I had not eaten any, but they rushed me to the hospital to have my stomach pumped any way. I knew I had not eaten any, but they did not listen.
Later that year in the summer, we had a rain storm and the water at the corner was deep enough for the kids on the block to play in. I wanted to play there too, but mother said that I could not. There was a lot of polio going around and she did not want me to catch it, so I could not play in the gutter like the other kids.
I had the measles. It must have been German Measles, because they kept me in a darkened room, for fear of the light effecting my eye sight. Sometime shortly after that I had a strep throat. My parents had gone out for an evening and it hurt so bad, I remember crying for my mother. My Nana tried to comfort me. The next morning they called the doctor to come. He examined me and asked me if I could walk. I remember saying that I could not, but that I could crawl. "Just put me down on the floor."
My Dad picked me up carried me to the car and we hurried to the hospital. Here they gave me a spinal tap to see if I had polio. I remember screaming. No one had ever hurt me like that. Mother heard me, but they would not let her come to me. She sat in the room with me for hours on end and read to me. She said at one point she was afraid that I might die. After a while they put me in a room with a glass window on one wall. They wrapped my legs and arms with hot wet wool to keep my muscles from contracting. The smell of wet wool made me feel sick well into my thirties. Mother was upset with my paternal grandmother because she did not come to visit for fear of germs.
I was transfered from the close by Norfolk General Hospital to Saint Vincent de Paul, run by the Sisters of Mercy. They seemed like angels swooping by with their long robes and large winged hats.
My mother hated to leave my side, so my Nana, and good friends took turns during the day taking care of my brother. I missed him and wanted to go home. They transferred me from Norfolk General to De Paul Hospital, to they children's ward. There were a lot of beds with lots of children in a large room. The Nuns, Sister's of Mercy, worked wonders there. They were nice. Some of the nurses were not. One Nun asked me in I were Catholic some how at four years old I knew to say that I was Methodist.
In the ward with me there were children in iron lungs, so that they could breath. When there were thunder storms, sometimes the electricity would go out. All the men would take turns cranking a generator in order to keep the iron lungs working. Without these devises the children in them would not die. There were others that came into the children's ward too. There was a little Chinese girl, whose mean brother had put her in a box and put fire to it. She was terribly burned. there was an older girl who had fallen off a horse while riding and had a metal plate in her head. There was one small boy that I was particularly fond of. He had polio too. It effected his arm.
The Doctors were very nice. One young doctor did paper cuttings for the children. I met my Doctor for the first time there, Johnny Vann. He was a young Doctor who walked with a limp. It turned out that he had contracted polio as a child. The smell of alcohol permeated the air as you moved about the hospital. This smell also bothered me for a long time. I was in De Paul for months. One day my mother asked me as I pleaded with her to stay,"What would you like me to bring you tomorrow?"
I answered, "Please bring me a fairy."
Oh dear, my Mother thought. She did not want to let me down, but a fairy. How on earth was she to find a fairy for her daughter? That evening she worried and thought. The next day she she came in carrying a very small doll with wings made out of a man's shirt collar and a gossamer dress. I knew that this was just a doll, but mother had a story that went with the doll.
She and my Dad had pulled the car into the drive and from the garden area she heard a tiny cry like a tingling of a bell. She walked over to discover a tiny fairy who was caught up in a web. My father reached down and freed her and lifted her up. Mother told her that her young daughter had been very sick and was still in the hospital and her only desire was to have them bring her a fairy the next day. Would she go to the hospital with them? "Oh....I can't," she said, "It is way too dangerous, I might even die if I go. But, I will help you," and at that she took out some fairy dust and turned a small doll into a fairy doll. "tell your little girl that it was not possible for me to come,but I will visit you and tell you some stories of the fairies for her."Mother was ready with stories that she had made up and written down to read to me. For years I thought that there were fairies in the garden at my grandparents home.
There was one definite high light to my hospital stay. The nurses gathered all the children that were able into a solarium room for the much anticipated visit of Jean Audry, the singing cowboy. I was able to brag about this for years. As another special treat they gave us hot dogs for our lunch. We all felt very special.
One of the visits that I particularly looked forward to was that of my Uncle Billy, Nana's brother. Every time that he'd come to visit he would bring me bubble gum. One time I asked him where did he get all that bubble gum from. He told me that he had a very special bush in his backyard that had gum as it's fruit. At the time I had trouble believing this, but I persisted. Could I see this marvelous bush. One day after I had recovered we went to visit, and there in his back yard was a bush with gum hanging all over attached with scotch tape. He had gone to a lot of trouble to make a little girl happy.
I was finally able to come home for a visit, and then at last home for good. Mother had to do physical therapy to try to keep my legs limber. They had always told me that the polio had effected me from my shoulders down. Some how I never thought that it had effected my arms. That was until I went to be tested for Post Polio Syndrome. Suddenly I went from being a paraplegic to being a quadriplegic. I am glad I did not know before. I have not let much get in my way of enjoying life and living it to the fullest
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