Donna and I were in the hospital together in the 50's during the Polio Outbreak. She had rheumatoid arthritis. We were both about eight years old when we met.
She was laying on a flat cart and I was sitting on a box of my clothes crying. Donna asked me to scratch her nose, as her arms just didn't work. I stopped my crying and scratched her nose and we became the best of friends.
Years flew by. We robbed the ice cream out of the nurses lounge and hid it under Donna's cover, - no one ever guessed that sweet little Donna would be a part of the Pirates. She and I ran away from the hospital, I in my wheel chair pushing Donna. We didn't make it very far.
Outside we were handicapped, but in that hospital we were young girls, sharing secrets, hopes, and dreams. I was having a rough time with my legs, and Donna was trying to walk in a new cart that the therapist had designed for her. She finally stood and really walked. One day she told me that she was going home for a stay. The day she left my heart broke, being alone there in the hospital was terrible.
Only a few hours later Donna was back. There had been a car accident and she had been horribly broken up. When I could finally visit her, she had lost all hope, was very ill and didn't want to talk to me. For days I went in my wheel chair to visit her and she would turn her face away and tell me that hope was a lie.
One day, I came to see her and she cried out for me to hurry. "He came to see me last night," she told me. "God, he sat right there and visited with me. I'm going to die but it will be all right. Until he comes for me I'm to tell everyone how much he loves us." She glowed and was full of hope and love again.
"I asked about you" she said. "He told me that you will be all healed and that no one would ever know that you had polio. He told me you would walk, and even run.".. she looked at me... and then she said, "When you can run, oh...climb a high hill, take the ribbon from your hair and say 'I'm Donna, run for me."
These are words, but the memory of Donna floods back whenever anyone says, "I would never have guessed you had polio. You walk and run just fine." Donna changed my life, she was my angel.
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