BLESSED BE THE CAREGIVERS — ESPECIALLY MY MOM
Most persons with a disability or facing a challenge describe the details from their own perspective. In my case, I was too young to remember the night the polio virus unleashed its virulent wrath. My mom, Mary Ann Wood, vividly remembered that night her entire life. The polio virus hit hardest during summer months, so Mom tried to keep her precious children—Patricia, Bill, Fred, and Kathy—close to home, on the farm located in mid-Michigan. From 1940 to 1948, there were 132,411 reported polio cases, according to the U.S. Public Health Service.. In 1949, the daily news headlined the spiraling epidemic that eventually claimed 42,033 polio victims, the largest number ever recorded. Mom so feared the virus that she bought polio insurance during that summer. I was born on June 18, 1949. Mom kept me inside and away from crowds that summer. Autumn blessedly arrived and the family was safe, so thought Mom. However, on the wintry morning of December 10, 1949—almost six months…