'Is Mommy Okay?'

"Is Mommy okay?" The words always came out as a whisper. Maybe I didn't want to wake my little brother, maybe because it was late in the night and that is just what people do, or maybe I was scared of the answer. A few minutes before I nervously asked my question, I had been awakened by the sound of a low moan. Most children would conjure up ghosts in their closets or a monster under their bed, but I knew exactly what it was; I tiptoed past my sleeping brother,and hurried to my parents' room. I lightly placed my hand on their door and slowly pushed it open, the fear rising in my chest. I would not step into their room. I had been warned in the past that I was not to go near her when this happened. I stood glued to my spot at their doorway, paralyzed. I watched their silhouettes, straining to make out my mother's face. My father was standing at the ready beside their bed, waiting and watching. The low moan was now accompanied by a terrifying sound, a harsh gasp. My mother was violently thrashing around and stomping her feet. She couldn't breathe. A muscle spasm shut off the entry to her lungs. My mother is a polio survivor. When several parents in her small community on the edge of the Catskills lost their elementary school aged sons and daughters to the Polio Epidemic of the early '50s, my mother survived. Unlike the temporary conditions of a cold or a flu, the disastrous paralytic effects on the body from polio are forever. The virus is permanently in her system. ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news