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Weak. Legs that were strong and performed a multitude of
farm-girl chores, suddenly seemed too weak to support it's
owner. Collapsing to the bedroom floor, she attempts to pull
herself up. With the exception of the baby sister who was
only 4 years of age, her parents and other siblings are going
about their daily routines on a September day. Potatoes were
waiting to
be dug and put in bushel baskets, before making the trip
back to the root cellar. Cows were being milked as eggs were
being gathered. The slight sound of pans in the kitchen
could be heard through an opening in the floor where a
stovepipe ran through several floors. Several of her sisters
were starting a meal for the family of 12.
Using the bed as support, she pulls herself up, just to
stumble and collapse once more. Scared, unaware of what is
happening, begging her baby sister not to say anything,
Rosella repeats the process.
The process is repeated for several more days. Rosella uses
the staircase for support or kitchen chairs to ambulate
through the kitchen for meals. Her brothers and sisters
notice Rosella doesn't seem as sure-footed as she previously
was. Rosella tells her siblings she doesn't feel well, and
stays upstairs out of the watchful eyes of her family. Her
baby sister meantime, keeps the secret hidden, upon the
wishes of her older sister.
As several days pass, Rosella's siblings see that she is
progressively getting worse. The children bring to the attention of their parents, that Rosie
is sick.
A trip is made to Champlain Valley Physicians
Hospital (CVPH) where she is diagnosed with
"poliomyelitis" which was earlier known as
"infantile paralysis". After a 10 day stint at
CVPH, Rosella was then transferred to Sunnyview Rehabilitation
Hospital in Albany, New York.
This was the year of the largest polio outbreak in the
United States,
September 1952.
Once in Albany, Rosie was immersed in a militant type
lifestyle of rules and regulations of the facility. Daily
she endured hot baths up to her neck and manipulation of her
lower limbs in the attempt to strengthen them. This grueling
ritual goes on for a period of three months.
During those long three months, limited visits from
family were allowed. Mabel and Mose, her parents, were able
to visit twice during the rehabilitation period. Forrest
Bull, a neighbor from Saranac, drove Mabel and Mose down to
Albany on these trips, for Mose had been feeling under the
weather. On one of those visits, Rosie's sister Shirley age
15, went on the long trip. Unfortunately she was not allowed
to visit her sister because of her age. Children that
were under the age of 16 were not allowed into patient areas
for fear they would contract the disease. Little was
known about this disease to folks who lived in rural
settings, other then it was a summer and fall disease, and
that it most always struck children. The disease was equally
baffling to hospital professionals.
Rosie was truly a blessed individual. Despite
shallow breathing, she was never subjected to the horror of
an iron lung. Within 3 months, she was able to return
home. Her brothers and sisters greeted her December 19, 1952,
able to walk, but with a heavy metal brace on her back,
using
crutches and wearing platform type shoes, which helped Rosie
to move her feet better. Aunt Rosie loathed those
shoes!
Her parents never received a bill for all of the care
their daughter received. "The March of
Dimes" Association took care of everything.
A gentleman named Mr. Dunken came out to the Drollette Homestead everyday, and
exercised the weakened emaciated limbs. Even when Aunt Rosie
was finally able to shed the restrictive brace and
crutches, the visits and exercises performed by Mr. Dunken went on for
months.
The following year, all of Rosie's brothers and sisters
received the vaccination for polio in Saranac. This was one
year before the Salk vaccination was given nationwide.
The rising suns over time, brought forth a young lady in
the prime of her life, with the ability to once again walk
on her own. Less then two years later, one of those rising
suns, robbed her and the family of a father and Mabel of her husband.
Mose died outside of St. Joseph's Church in Dannemora, while
waiting in the car to pick his family up from Church.
Rosella Drollette (1933-2006) went on to live a full
life. She married Gerald Magoon (1926-1988) from Ellenburgh,
NY. Together, they raised a daughter and lived in Saranac,
NY. Aunt Rosie was a cheeky individual, who had a wonderful
sense of humor that was contagious. She loved her family, and despite battling
polio, and post-polio syndrome, she was a true
survivor.
On a visit to Saranac in 2003, Aunt Rosie was no longer
able to walk up the path to the house she was raised in. Her
spirit of not giving in, was evident as she came driving up
the footpath perched on a riding lawn mower. It tickled me
and brought tears to my eyes that her spirit was as strong
as ever.
I talked to Aunt Rosie over the next few years, checking
to see how she was doing. Her health was failing fast, and
it seemed that not a month passed where a medical
crisis didn't land her in the hospital. Aunt Rosie told me
she felt she wouldn't be with us much longer. I asked her to
be strong; that I would be visiting in July 2006. I would be
visiting my mother in Schenectady for a week, and would be
in Saranac on the 26th. I am privileged to say, upon
driving from Schenectady to Saranac, my first visit was to
Aunt Rosie's. We had a very short visit. It was very hard
for her to talk and I did not want to tire her out. I
promised to be back the next day. Several hours later,
I received a call from my father that Aunt Rosie had passed
away during the evening.
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