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Polio's Legacy: Integrating the Missing Pieces
Abstract
No one who was born in the early twentieth century remained immune from the effects of the polio virus. Whether infected or not, the fear attached to the disease changed the lives of all who were born during the epidemic years of 1910-1960. In the cultural silence which enveloped polio, survivors were wounded in both body and voice, relinquishing their capacity to speak of their experiences. True followers of the restitution narrative imposed on them by medical and societal expectations, they came to ignore the pieces of themselves that might not 'pass' as normal. This narrative surrender to the medical voice which defined their illness and determined its course of treatment could not be sustained over a lifetime without great cost. For many survivors, the emergence of post-polio syndrome shatters their illusion of restitution; a new story needs to be forged in order to integrate these missing pieces of self, body and soul. It is the voices of these polio survivors that the present paper attempts to amplify. When survivors re-story their lives, they find an alternative narrative which gives voice to their experiences and offers the healing which has eluded them for so long.
Submitted by
Lili Bunce, Family Services Manager, Habitat for Humanity Calgary, Calgary, AB ;
Email: lilibunce@yahoo.ca
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