The latest installment of…

Way Back When: The Lost Anthology — Chapter Four

The following piece was sent to us by the late Ernie Anderegg from Tuscon, Arizona. He wanted it to be published in the post-polio anthology back in the late 1980s.  This poem is a tough one to read because it so concretely describes the anguish and adversity that polio brought to so many newly-paralyzed children and their heartbroken families. The experience was absolutely devastating on so many levels and can bring back mournful images and memories that are still buried deep within.

But wait! Out of the desolation, Ernie expresses his pride in being a polio survivor and reminds us that the powerful spirit of love and our enthusiasm for living life prevails …

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Who are these polio Survivors?

 

Infants, only days or weeks into this precious life;

Lifeless and aching in paralytic strife.

Toddlers, removed from their bonding with kin;

to a world of strangers and loneliness therein.

School-age tots, healthy, vital and well;

with an untimely sentencing to a strange form of Hell.

Young adults, men and women alike;

not quite able to evade this phantom’s strike.

With febrile delusion and limbs that would fail;

Like rag dolls–languid, flaccid and frail.

Parents of whom were often alerted,

“Go home to your family, death cannot be averted.”

But we heard not the dirge, we made no departure;

and we all cheated death to pursue life’s adventure. 

Now challenged by life to rebuild and maintain;

the Polio Survivor will gain and regain.

With lost weeks and years in sterile abandonment,

maturing, enduring this foreign environment.

Spanning the spectrum from newborn past twenty;

Their good lives disrupted–tears shed aplenty.

With racking pain in uphill progression,

who’d ever believe we would relive regression?

But through this all we bore the test;

and still proclaim we are the best.

And drawing from our days on trial,

When we all pushed the extra mile.

The common thread running through our lives

was…

The Polio Survivor endures and survives!

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About the Author

Polio survivor, Ernest J. Anderegg, Jr., age 68, “ended his earthly journey at home on March 29, 2015. Born on December 1, 1946 in Jersey City, NJ to parents Ernest and Lillian Anderegg and survived by first wife, Beverly Anderegg; two children, Darrin and Renee; three grandchildren and two brothers, Warren and Gregory Anderegg. As a polio survivor he became a strong advocate for the disabled community and instrumental in establishing the polio EPIC group. His presence will be missed and treasured by family and many beloved friends. He was admired for his wit, appreciation of the value and comfort of friendship, and particularly for his strength and equanimity in the face of chronic pain. He was a profound poet and writer who earned the title of “Distinguished Poet” on Poetry.com.

Of his life he wrote, ” (I am a) polio survivor of the 40’s epidemic (spino-bulbar) who has spent a lifetime ‘trying to pass for normal’ (a term used by survivors).  In my old age there has been a number of concessions, physical and psychological, that directed me to writing to express and vent. Watching the natural course of things in an analytical way,  I am able to draw from life experience to leave my thoughts, strengths, personal spirituality for family & friends to cipher after the fact.”

Ernie was a founding member of the flourishing post-polio support group, Polio Epic, in Tuscon, Arizona. Current group president, Micki Minner, enthusiastically shared with me that Polio Epic is a dynamic, ever-enlarging support group with strong programs and powerful outreach. It attracts folks from all over the state to their regular meetings.  To learn more, check out their website here… 

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The Search for Anthology Authors Continues…

Almost 30 years ago (1987), friends, Barbara Pike, Charlene Bozarth, and I sent out a nationwide request to polio survivors who might want to have their writings published in an anthology. Manuscripts came in, but life took over, and we were never able to create and publish the collection, as we had hoped. When I lost track of Barbara in Ohio, and Charlene, who left Michigan for New Mexico,  I protectively stored the writings for resurrection at a later date.

Well, this year is that later date! I recently rediscovered them in my files, dusted them off, and now plan to take the liberty of publishing them by way of this blog.  Some are essays. Some are poems. They are heartfelt, intimate and describe living with polio in earlier times. We can still resonate with their feelings and messages.

Here is a list of the missing anthology authors whom I would like to contact for permission to publish their work, now, so many years later. Since the publishing of chapter one, we have found three more authors, but have many yet to find.

If you are one, or know of one, please contact me at sunnyrollerblog@gmail.com.

Thank you!

Sunny

Floy Schoenfelder

Lee Whipple

William Wild

Agnes Fennewald

Charlotte Snitzer

Ann Bradley

Toni Keffeler

Sofia Baltodano

Bruce Berman

Roberta Dillion Williams

Becky Lee Vance

Jean Hamm

Norene Senkbeil

Ann Goodhall

Ginger Sage

Shirley Hile Powell

Elizabeth Reeves

Doris Vanden Boogard

Donna L. Mattinson

Marie Galda

Alan M. Oberdick

Emma Blosser Hartzler

R. N. Hackney

Robert C. Huse

 

 Where can you be?

 

P.S. Quick report on my weight loss program: since May 13th I have lost 4.5 pounds. Onward and upward!

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