Movement Beats Polio

My Grandma inside the igloo! My Grandma inside the igloo!

My grandma contracted polio when she was nine. She was so sick her mother had to push her in a baby carriage to walk her to the hospital.  She was embarrassed and mad at her mom because she was nine and didn’t belong in a baby carriage.  No one else in the Waterbury area had been diagnosed with polio so at first the doctors didn’t know what was wrong.  Before long there was an entire ward of children with polio.

For six month, my grandma was strapped to a wooden plank to immobilize her. It was the early thirties.  The hospitals didn’t have air conditioning and she talks about how hot it could get in the room she shared with a group of polio-infected children.  Those that died were wheeled out.  One of her best memories from her time in the hospital was on summer Saturday nights when the nurses would wheel patients who were well enough out onto a patio for fresh air.  The nurses would turn on music and dance.

When it was time to go home the doctor told her mother […]

Movement Beats Polio2017-10-25T15:49:42-04:00

Why I Move

My Grandma at 88 on a Stability Ball. My Grandma at 88 on a Stability Ball.

There are lots of reasons I move.  It makes me feel better physically, mentally and emotionally, and there are a lot of physical activities I think are fun that I want the freedom to do.  I’m also really antsy, and I use movement to burn off extra, jittery energy. 

 

But if I’m going to overanalyze it and step back into the reaches of my brain for why I move and believe it’s so important to creating a better life, I have to, at least in part, attribute it to my Grandparents.  My Grandpa Downie was antsy too.  I never saw him sit without a foot tapping, and he was really active until he hit about 80.   But it was more my Grandma.  When I was born she’d been wheelchair bound and bedridden for thirty years.

Why I Move2017-10-25T15:49:51-04:00
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