Polio.
We think of it as ancient history—a
disease that was long ago eradicated.
But that’s not true—It was widespread around 1950, and so there are
quite a few Americans still living with it, including around ten to fifteen in the
Amish community where I live.
This morning I did something I’ve
been wanting to do for a long time… I
spent some time with Wheelchair Mary (as she calls herself). Mary Miller is the only surviving wheelchair-bound
polio victim in this area, and I wanted to hear her story.
Mary told me it started one morning
when she was 18 months old—in 1952. Her
mother came in to get her out of bed, and Mary (who was a vigorous walker by
then) couldn’t stand up in her crib. Her
mother knew immediately what was wrong…
Eight other young children in their church district already had
polio. One of them, a little boy, died while visiting
relatives in Iowa and was brought home in a casket.
As Mary told me, “America was rich
with polio in the early 50s, before the vaccine.” She says adults who got it typically died,
but children usually didn’t. The doctors
didn’t even know what to recommend… Keep
them warm? Cool them off? Try to make them exercise their limbs? Make them rest?
Eventually, with funds from the
March of Dimes, Mary was sent to the polio hospital in Warm Springs, Arkansas
when she was five years old. (This
hospital was founded by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1927, and he continued
to go there until his death in 1945.)
Mary lived in a ward which held 25
young girls—5 rows of 5 beds each. She
spent seven months at the hospital, separated from her family and everything
she had ever known. Her mother had
packed her Amish clothes, but the hospital clothed her like the other girls, since
she was the only Amish patient and they didn’t want her to feel awkward.
Since only English was spoken
there, Mary quickly picked it up, and before long she entirely lost her ability
to speak Pennsylvania Dutch, so she had to relearn it from scratch when she
returned home. She said that when her
father came to get her, she was shocked to see that, unlike the men at the
hospital, he had a long beard! Upon
returning home, her closest sister, Irene, didn’t believe this English-speaking
girl was her dear sister and said to their parents, “Let’s go find the real Mary!”
While she was at Warm Springs she
was encouraged to use her braces and crutches in order to keep her spine
strong. She had a variety of therapies while she was there. Her knee and hip muscles had contracted to
the point that she was losing her ability to stand up, so she also had surgery there
to release them. Quite a lot for a
five-year-old girl to endure, far away from home!
Her brother Mervin got polio in
1955—three years after Mary did. It didn’t
affect his legs or arms, but it nearly destroyed his mind. He spent the rest of his life under the care
of his family, living with Mary in his later years, and he died recently. No one else in the family was affected.
Mary said her school days were a
struggle, as you can imagine. She “walked”
with braces and crutches in those days, but she says her arms did all the work
and her legs were useless. She went to Honeyville
Elementary School for the first four years.
But grades 5 to 9 were on the second floor—so she and her closest
sister, Irene, were transferred to Topeka Elementary School. (There were no Amish schools yet.) She says the other seven girls in her class would
take turns helping her—but many times they would forget her and leave her
outside at the end of recess!
Besides using her braces and
crutches, the other kids pulled her around in a little red wagon that was
obtained just for that purpose. Then in sixth
grade she got a “school wheelchair” (she already had one at home), and she says
that helped a lot. But Mary wanted to
run, jump, and play with the other kids.
She said she often sat off to the side with a lump in her throat, crying
on the inside.
As a youth, she couldn’t go to the
Sunday night singings and other social events,
and she says that made her rebellious inside.
She said she was fifty years old before it stopped bothering her. I remarked, “It’s hard to be different”—and
Mary said, “Yes—you hit the nail on the head!”
She says it’s been a lifelong struggle to let go.
What is Mary’s life like
today? After the death of her father,
she and her mother and her disabled brother moved into the lovely home where
she now lives alone. She does, however,
have a young niece named Amanda who lives downstairs and does her laundry and
housecleaning. Amanda’s dog Cody spends much of his time upstairs, keeping Mary
company. Mary’s food is supplied by many
friends and neighbors who bring her frozen leftovers to heat up, which works
out well for her.
The garage portion of Mary’s home
contains her special wheelchair buggy and also her “road scooter” on which she
can travel a couple of miles, to go to church or to visit another home. (Quite a few of her family members live within
that distance.) She told me she can get
out of bed and into a wheelchair on her own, but she said, “It takes about
twenty steps to do it!”
Mary’s life has definitely had meaning... I was stunned to see a copy of the large book that she has authored. With the help of an expert Old-German-to-English translator, she has created an amazing resource for the Amish community—a large reference book on the rituals, songs, prayers, articles of faith, and other treasured documents of the Amish church, translated from the Old German into modern English, side-by-side on the pages. As Mary says in the foreword:
These hymns and
prayers are sacred to us, written under conditions we can hardly imagine. We would not wish to lose this part of our
heritage. Yet we must admit, we are not
as much at home in the German language as our forefathers were. Therefore it takes more of an effort—yes, a
real dedication—to keep the true spirit of these songs, prayers, and our German
heritage alive… This book is a small
effort in that direction. It is a
collection of translations.
Some backstory here: The Amish are a tri-lingual people:
(1) The “Pennsylvania Dutch” they
learn first, which they speak at home and to each other, and which their church
uses for the preaching. It is mainly only a spoken language;
(2) The English they learn when
they begin school at age seven and use when speaking to outsiders like us,
which is also the language they use when they write; and
(3) The Old German which is the
language of their Bible, their church hymnbook, and many of the rites and
rituals of their church, and which they learn in the upper grades at school—but
they don’t necessarily become fluent in that one. And that, dear reader, is where Mary’s book
fills a gap for the Amish community.
This incredible project took Mary
about twenty years to complete. The
first edition was published in 2000, with a revised edition in 2008. Here, below, are two samples: one of the
Articles of Faith, and a portion of the Amish marriage vows.
One time as a child, Mary sat
watching a ball game with her father—she loved watching and cheering, but
longed to play. Her father told her, “Don’t
look so sad—try to always wear a cheerful smile. Then people will come to you—since you can’t
go to them.” She said it was good advice…
and as she told me, “Many times, you
just have to be a good listener!” When
asked if her days seem long, she said, “No!
No, not at all!”
Mary said she still has lots of
visitors—which today included my friend Ruth and me. It was one of the best ways I’ve spent a
morning in a very long time.
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For more about polio, look here. Or see a brief timeline of polio in the USA here.