The Mothership - 2021-10-28
My dad had polio in 1952. He was 9. He told me the stories of being in the ward with the other kids with polio. He told me about seeing other kids his age - HIS AGE - in iron lungs. They were in iron lungs for the remainders of their short lives.
He's still managing post-polio symptoms. He can walk, but his left leg is about half the size of his right in terms of bone and muscle mass, and he probably only has a couple more years of being able to walk.
I try to get him to exercise, to help maintain what mobility he has, but he's been told his whole life that it's a losing battle, so he's kind of given up. Just like his mother, who one day decided that she had worked too hard in her life, she was tired, and was just going to sit down in her easy chair and relax until she died.
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