vaccine

  My Great-great grandma survived polio. She was lucky she didn't end up in an iron lung. Back then fear was rampant. No on new how it was transmitted. My mother remembers her mother carefully pealing every last sting off the banana's because they though polio could be caught from banana "strings." 

When the polio vaccine came out, it was no different than it is now. People were afraid. Very afraid. 

 But they did it. 

They did it to protect their children and everyone else's child.

My oldest memory is sitting on my mother's lap watching as thick grape syrup was poured on a sugar cube, and then popped into my mouth. I bet my mother was nervous knowing that her little one was getting live polio vaccine...having watched her grandmother live with the aftermath of polio her whole life.

But she did it.

That picture is of  me. I am 6 months old and failing to thrive. I am in a doll dress tied up in the back because back in 1966 there wasn't any clothes that fit me. That is my small pox vaccine scab there on my wee little six-month-old arm.

Last time my people and the government and small pox came up together in the same conversation it was to give infected blankets to those on the reservations to kill them.

Yeah. there was zero trust, but everyone did it anyway.

2020, locked down rolled in....and issued in a hell I hope to never have to visit again. Watching the elderly in my care mentally stew in anguish ..."My daughter doesn't come visit me anymore...is she mad at me?" breaks into sobs. 

Me unable to hug her and comfort her crying behind my mask. Night after night, turning into weeks after weeks, until it was too late and she went to her grave thinking her loving daughter abandoned her.

Watching my own child plunge into a depression as the isolation physically separated her from her mates.  Online schooling and therapy were a poor substitute.  But at least she was in a safe place. She had a home, food and an abuse free environment.  The huge decrease of reported cases of child abuse...tells me many children gained the title of survivor.

I took that covid vaccine for my residents so they could have those unreplaceable moments with their families again. I took it so my children could once again go out and get on with life. I took it for those children who NEED to get out of their houses and into school where they have a chance to report what is happening to them. 

I did it...for all of us.