Post 5: Polio Hits the Gillum Family

One afternoon when I was two, the girls came in from swimming in the creek. Jonnie (Sis) was sick. I remember Mom putting her to bed, and Uncle Arthur came over. He began to suspect polio, and he quickly got all the children out of the house. I understand the Hignights, our neighbors, drove her to Children's Hospital at Little Rock. That was a very long, hard ordeal for her. About all I remember about it was later going to Little Rock when the family went to visit and seeing trains and riding on a street car. She spent a long period of time in an iron lung, a huge contraption which all of her body was in except for her head. It “breathed”for her. It bought time while new breathing muscles regenerated. She was not expected to survive on many occasions. At long last, she was able to come home. I understand the Hignights were very helpful during this long ordeal. They refused to take pay from dad for the trips to Little Rock in their automobile. Finally, Dad had Harold and Harry cut a load of firewood for them. I'm not sure if they accepted that or not.

When Sis got home, she had lost the use of one arm completely and had only partial use of the other. She refused to let her handicap slow her down. She was a great model for all the rest of us in showing what a person can do with an iron will and steel determination. She learned to play the piano, graduated from ASTC at Conway with a teaching degree, and taught elementary students for 30 years. She married Twain Willis, raised two great girls, and did as much hard work as anyone else would, probably more that most. She always found a way to do what she was determined to do. A friend of hers told a story at her funeral about the time Jonnie was trying to carve a pumpkin and chased it all over the yard until she finally got it carved! Years later, she wrote, “I always thought I was weaker than anyone else.” When I read that, I was shocked. I had always thought of her as the strongest person I knew! I still do.
Jonnie's ASTC experience brings up a great opportunity to illustrate how a diet of salt pork, corn bread, lima beans, and the like all one's life can super-enhance one's appreciation for the finer things in life that we take for granted today. I went with Dad and some of the family to Conway to pick Sis and her things up at the end of the term. Being the youngest, I was just naturally the one pushed out of the cab on the way back, with all her stuff, in back. I opened a box, and staring me right in the face was most of a jar of MAYONAISE! (probably called Salad Dressing, in those days.) I opened the lid, tasted it. My taste buds went, absolutely, into shock! I quickly finished that jar off, right there on the spot! By the time we pulled into Wing, I had licked it clean.

I will be gone for a few days, due to my daughter's surgery. I'll have a new post when I return. Thanks for reading!