Babies and Hospitals

Marlene

Too beautiful of a person Marlene, did I ever tell you about Emma, a little four-year-old girl that I met while doing volunteer work at Crippled Children's Hospital in 1970?

Emma was born without arms and legs. The Thalidomide babies were born. Women took a morning sickness drug before it was officially approved by the Food and Drug administration.

The babies were brought to Crippled Children's hospitals all across America. The therapist made a leather bucket for Emma to sit in. The bucket was attached to an eighteen by eighteen inch board with casters on all corners. Emma would wiggle her torso back and fourth to propel herself forward down the halls of the Hospital.

Emma wore pink barrettes in her pigtail hair. She had a diaper on and wore a white T shirt with a bunny rabbit on it.

I was doing volunteer work and they put me with all boys in a room. The boys all had serious birth disabilities. I will try to make the story much shorter than it is.