Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio

Miss Ballard helps Peg to correct her posture while the girl walks with a book balanced atop her head. In late January, Miss Ballard instructs Peg to take a few steps without her sticks. Peg walks six steps, and they celebrate together, sharing a hug. They practice walking alone every day, and gradually, Peg’s steps become smoother and larger in length. While Peg learns to walk by herself, Dorothy struggles to adapt to her new braces and walking sticks, knowing the alternative will be a permanent wheelchair. Renée makes more progress; while she needs help putting her leg braces on, she can move around with her walking sticks.

In February, Miss Ballard asks if Peg would like to go home for good. The doctors have already agreed to her discharge, and all they need to do is notify her parents. Peg is shocked at the idea of going home. Miss Ballard tells her she’ll need to come back for weekly check-ups at first, then monthly ones, to make sure she continues to progress. On her last night, Peg gives her roommates her things to remember her by, including her teddy bear. Her emotions oscillate between elation at going home and sadness about leaving her friends.

Peg’s mother arrives early in the morning and the good-byes are hard. They stop at University Hospital on the way home so that Peg can walk for Dr. Bevis. When they greet Dr. Bevis, Peg is on walking sticks, but she soon hands them to her mother and walks across the lobby and back for Dr. Bevis, who thanks her proudly for coming to show him.

Peg returns home, no longer a visitor, but a resident. She dutifully continues her physical therapy exercises each day. The rest of the time she uses her sticks, though it’s harder in the narrow areas of her home. Peg is in no hurry to get rid of the sticks, though, as it is much easier to move around with them than it is to walk alone. She studies every afternoon to prepare for her final exams so she will not fall behind her classmates. Her friends take turns visiting each day, but their visits are strained. Though they’re glad to see each other, Peg is bothered that they stare at her walking sticks and ask her about polio instead of talking about school. Peg wonders if she can expect the same hyper-fixation on her polio when she returns to school.

Peg returns to the Sheltering Arms a week later for her check-up and Miss Ballard is pleased with her progress. After four weekly check-ups, Peg transitions to monthly check-ups. Dorothy tells her that she will be discharged soon and go home in her wheelchair. She won’t be at the Sheltering Arms when Peg comes in for her next checkup. Dorothy later admits in a letter to Peg that she misses the Sheltering Arms and asks if she’s being silly. Peg understands perfectly what Dorothy means. All the girls felt safe there because everyone understood their difficulties and the environment was much more accommodating than the “normal” world. While the girls all intend to keep in touch, letters between the roommates inevitably slow over time.

In April, Peg is able to return to school. She is still on her walking sticks, but she can go up and down stairs if someone carries her sticks for her and she’s able to hold the railing with both hands. It is slow going, but she can make it. Peg starts by attending only in the mornings, but intends to work up to a full day. Her first day back is nerve-racking, but when she walks into her first-period class, students cheer and welcome her back. All her fears of not getting the help she needs vanish when people are eager to help her. She has become a hometown celebrity. As the only person from Austin to get polio that year, everyone has been following her case and rooting for her to walk again. Peg finds that instead of falling behind her peers in her classes, she might have even pulled slightly ahead. She feels certain she’ll pass her final exams.

Her last class of the morning is chorus, and her singing has improved from all the singing she did in Room 202 with her roommates, though now she’s adapted to using her stomach muscles instead of her diaphragm. As she finds her seat, she remembers her twitching thigh from that last chorus class, when her polio symptoms first started. She has been gone seven months, but it feels like “a lifetime” (178). Although she still uses her walking sticks and walks more slowly, she feels that she has become stronger than she was when she left.

Peg shares updates about the lives of her friends and doctors from her time fighting polio. Dorothy remained in her wheelchair after her polio recovery and led a very successful life. She graduated high school, married, and had seven children and 11 grandchildren at the time Peg wrote Small Steps. Dorothy also played the autoharp, sang awhile in her own band, and wrote songs. She was a senior receptionist at Courage Center in Minneapolis. Renée finished high school and led an active life. She wrote a weekly column for her local newspaper for several years and wrote a history of her church. Alice graduated high school and lived in a home for people with disabilities until she died from cancer in 1993. She was a secretary for the United Handicapped Federation in St. Paul Minnesota and sang in a choir. Shirley died from polio in 1955, just five years after her time with Peg. Peg never heard news about Tommy after University Hospital. Dr. Bevis continued treating polio patients and became a distinguished pediatrician before retirement.

Peg Schulze married Carl Kehret and took his last name. Peg and Carl Kehret went on to have two children, Anne and Bob. Peg remembers crying when her children received their polio vaccinations. She has four grandchildren at the time of writing Small Steps. Having always wanted to become a writer, she finally achieved her dream. She now enjoys writing books for young people and has published 32 books. Though she never became a vet, she and her husband volunteer at the Humane Society, and she adopted two cats and a dog. Peg enjoys shopping for antiques, playing the piano, and reading.

Forty years after the events of this book, many of Peg’s old symptoms reemerged: muscle aches, foot cramps, back pain, and fatigue. Peg, just like Dorothy and Renée, has been diagnosed with post-polio syndrome, which affects many polio survivors. Post-polio syndrome often results in polio survivors returning to their walking sticks, braces, or wheelchairs. Peg is pained to discover that her battle with polio was not permanently won. She has returned to her old habits of physical therapy to manage the effects.