When Was it I Dared to Dream

In July of 1949, Barbara Lee Duffy was struck down by Polio at the age of ten, paralyzed from her chin to her toes. Before that, she was an unhappy child, fearful of her mother's dismissive attitude and bouts of anger, her sister's fits of bullying and rage, harassment by the Nuns at Saint Pat's grammar school and a dirty old uncle groping under her skirt. She was also bothered by other things, like the sign in front of the U.S. Post Office that said, "KEEP OFF THE GRASS." "If I have to keep off of it, then what is it for," she ruminated? She despised being excluded from anything she might enjoy. She saw herself as two girls-the oppressed, bullied and rejected girl of yesterday and the new-world girl of today, who lay encased in an iron lung for eight months, surrounded by caring and indulgent Doctors, Nurses and Physical Therapists who actually liked her. She quickly learned how to keep the "old girl" stuffed down deep, so no one could find any reason to reject her. She learned how to quietly observe and comment to herself about what she liked and disliked about the people and things around her. She needed to stay quiet and focused about what could be mended on her body and what could not. She knew that her full participation in the treatments, was essential in her recovery, but there were other problems requiring solutions that she also had to grapple with-fears, anxiety, sexual identity problems, dealing with people in authority (especially self-assumed authority) who fought against the creative and life enhancing goals that she set for herself-like where and how she lived, who she loved, her educational and work goals, all taking place during that fantastic journey of her soul incarnate and with all the odds on earth against her, she did the one thing they said she would NEVER do. She did what they all said was impossible.