WALKER: Casi R. Fisher, a polio survivor
It was probably around 1950. It could have been a year or so before, or a couple of years after, but 1950 is a good guess. Some of this I remember, but mostly it's what Mama told me and she, now 95, doesn't recall the details like she used to.
I awoke in our little home at Swift and Third streets just a couple of blocks from downtown Perry, and my legs wouldn't work. Maybe it was me or perhaps I "slept wrong," but now, even 65 years later, I know it was real. The temporary inability to walk was real.
Polio! If you had children or grandchildren in 1950, no word caused the fear that "polio" did.
Perry had a public swimming pool. It was concrete, probably not more than four or five feet deep at the "deep end." Big cattle operators now have cow troughs about as big as our pool was. The pool was behind what is now the Perry Arts Center. It was closed in the 1950s because of the fear that this dreaded disease could be spread through swimming pools.
I get lots of emails, letters, telephone calls and comments because I write this column. But, I have never gotten a more poignant communication than the one from Casi Rainwater Fisher, a polio survivor, who requested that I do an article "on the ancient scourge of poliomyelitis and the survivors living here in the mid-Georgia area." Let me share some of her words with you.
"Mr. Walker, I am a polio survivor ... There are still quite a few of us left. Most of us are in our 70s or 80s and are approaching the end of our life span ... I think we are unique. Each of us has his or her own story.
"The polio virus invaded my tiny little body as an infant. It affected my entire right extremity, all the way up to my waist. Even my right hip was affected. The virus left me with a smaller foot and leg ... my young mother, with an onset of adult mumps, could not care for me ... my little grandmother took me to the tiny town of Tuleta, Bee County, Texas to see the old country doctor ...
"My young aunts have told me that as I got older, I kept my right foot and leg up, and was in obvious extreme pain. I cried incessantly. The good doctor could not tell me what was wrong with me.
"My grandmother and aunts placed very warm moist cloths on my tiny foot and leg. They gently massaged my legs ... they took turns rocking me to sleep in the old rocking chairs ... My speech had also been affected, and I stopped making baby sounds. Again, these good women ... took action. They would clap and make sounds and would encourage me to make baby talk again ...
"Today, I am a disabled senior due to osteoarthritis ... one of my doctors thinks the after effects of polio has made the arthritis worse ... I am a third generation Mexican American. I come from a poor country, farm people ... life was hard for all of us, but we endured ... I think we polios are a special breed ... Our own President Franklin Roosevelt was affected by the polio virus. I must say that I consider him one of my heroes for all he did for us. I was fitted with a tiny brace at Santa Rosa, and all of my medical expenses were taken care of by the March of Dimes ... I am very grateful for that ..."
Rotary International is celebrating World Polio Day on Oct. 24, to spread the good news about Rotary's major role in the eradication of polio. Thanks, Rotarians, for the good work that's been done on this. And, thanks to you, Casi Fisher, for sharing your story with us. It's quite a story, and you are quite a woman.
Larry Walker is a practicing attorney in Perry. He served 32 years in the Georgia General Assembly and presently serves on the University System of Georgia Board of Regents. Email: lwalker@whgmlaw.com.
This story was originally published October 17, 2015 at 4:55 PM with the headline "WALKER: Casi R. Fisher, a polio survivor ."