Stay-at-Home - Day 40 - Channeling My Inner Dorothy

Sorry about missing yesterday's post. I ended up having to run quickly to the shop for a customer query and by the time I got back home, DH had the garage overtaken with his building. He's busy building privacy screens for the shop. Things were going OK ... but I've learned over the years it's better to walk through and ignore to the best of my ability. Which is exactly what I did. 

The walking boot is working OK, I'm still using crutches, but I'm not 100% dependent on them. I see the Podiatrist in two hours, so I'll get the scoop on the boot and how soon I can take the darned thing off when I see him. I might be tolerating the boot, but it's really hurting my shin and I hope he'll have some suggestions for that. 

Although Dorothy Gale overcame many obstacles on
her hunt for the Wizard and a return home, she isn't
the Dorothy I'm channeling.  

I headed today's post "Channeling My Inner Dorothy". Some of you may be thinking of Dorothy Gale, from "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" fame, but no. My Dorothy was a very real woman whose fortitude I've been amazed by at various times of my life, but especially now that I've been relying on crutches and boots. 

Dorothy wore braces on her legs and had crutches
similar to these - attached at the upper arm with
bars for the hands. She managed to keep her rambunctious
family all together, kept a clean kitchen, and was
a rather phenomenal person. 

Many of you know I grew up in Denver. My best friend in childhood (aside from my cousin across the street) was the girl across the alley from me. She and her two younger brothers lived in a small house with their parents. Both parents were polio victims, her father usually in a wheelchair, her mother with arm-attached crutches. He was a talented jeweler, working for one of the downtown Denver custom jewelry stores, she was a stay-at-home housewife, because that was the trend back then in the "dark ages". 

Many of my readers are too young to remember the last major
Pandemic that spread through the world - Polio. I knew people
directly affected by polio, and even met a woman living inside
an iron lung when I was in my 30's. It's a truly frightening
disease and we managed to find a vaccine. We'll find one for
COVID-19 too, it's just going to take a while to find the best
one to offer to the world. 

When I look back at all they managed to do for their kids and the friends of their kids, I'm amazed. Dorothy was the mother's name, and what she could do on crutches was beyond amazing. Her husband, whose name I don't recall, was the handyman. He made us a seesaw for their back yard, he also made us our first skateboards from an old set of roller skates and a one-by-six board. We got really good at going full speed down the VERY steep hill at the bottom of my block. I suppose we could have seriously hurt ourselves - no helmets, no knee pads - but we all were very lucky and lived into adulthood. 

I think it's always good to remember people who left a positive impact on us. So, I'm channeling my own Dorothy as I work through the problems ahead with my foot being broken and still having to make my store ready to open on the 18th. I just thought I'd share a bit of her story with all of you today. As always, Stay Safe, Stay Home, Stay Well. I'll be back tomorrow.