On April 18th, I went to help my grandma put salt in her water softener. While I was there, my grandma told me that her mom was born on April 18th in 1914. It was Grandma Royle's 104th birthday!
Grandma Miller's neighbor had made her raisin filled cookies. As we ate the amazing cookie, grandma told me about when her mom got polio. While her mom was in quarantine, her grandma taught her to make raisin filled cookies. Also while her mom was in quarantine, my grandma remembers going outside with her younger sister to peek through the window so they could see their momma. I can't even imagine how my great-grandma's heart must've broken to not be able to see or kiss her children!
In November of 2017, I did a Relief Society lesson for a heritage night about my great-grandmother Emily Peay Royle. I always knew my great-grandma had polio but I hadn't given much thought to how devastating it must've been for her family when she contracted the disease.
Thankfully, my grandpa recorded the experience in his personal history. Here is his story in my words as I told it for Relief Society;
In the late-summer of 1940, my great-grandmother Emily Peay Royle was 26 years old and the mother of 3 young girls- my grandma (the oldest) had just turned 6 and her sisters were 4 and 18 months.
Families were still recovering from the great depression and looking for opportunities to earn money, so my grandpa's family decided to set up a hamburger stand at the Lehi Rodeo which my grandma helped with- coming in contact with hundreds of people.
A few days after the rodeo, grandma suddenly became extremely ill- so much so that they were visiting her in-laws at the time and she was placed in their bed. My grandpa immediately had a doctor examine her and he noticed that she gave no response when her knees were tapped with a mallet. Then, after the doctor's visit, my grandpa helped grandma to the bathroom. My grandpa said, "It was in the bathroom where the stark truth flooded my entire being- I knew my wife had polio for she was paralyzed!" Her legs were like the legs of a rag doll. He picked her up and carried her back to bed. He phoned the doctor again, this time with much anxiety telling the doctor that his wife had polio to which the doctor told my grandpa it was in his imagination. For the next several days, the doctor researched treatments and conferred with other doctors. By this time my grandma was completely paralyzed from her waist to her feet.
Finally, one week later, a specialist arrived that was able to properly diagnose polio. He immediately quarantined the family. It's interesting to me that my grandpa was permitted out of quarantine to teach school. What?!
Finally after several weeks, my grandma was moved to LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City for several months of polio treatments and therapy. My grandpa said, "Obviously I was without any financial resources to pay for such needed care. Realizing our predicament, our bishop made the financial arrangements through the Presiding Bishopric's office. I was later interviewed by the Presiding Bishop regarding our financial and domestic circumstances. When he told me my responsibilities, I was relieved of the immediate concern. At that interview with a general authority, I, again, personally affirmed that I would always be a full tithe payer and a generous contributor to the Fast Offering Fund."
In the early Spring of 1941, grandma was moved from LDS Hospital to a private convalescing home in Salt Lake City. There she continued physical therapy treatments. My grandpa said, "The physical therapy treatments were continued until I finished the first year of teaching at Pleasant Grove High School. We rented a small modest home with plumbing. After nine months of separation, we were reunited as a family. It was almost like getting re-acquainted. Emily came home with considerable disability, especially in her left leg. The right leg had recovered about 90% of its function; the left leg was still paralyzed as at the outset of the polio. Before leaving Salt Lake City she was fitted with an orthopedic brace for the left leg. It was anticipated by the medical specialists that she would never walk again without the brace. She was given a pair of crutches to help her walk. She faithfully tried to walk each day as described.
Nadine was now six years old and began to sense her responsibility as the oldest child and help her mother learn to walk. For several weeks it was a very painful and disappointing experience for our family. When I would be away working during the daytime, Emily would try to walk but often fell to the floor or the ground if out on the lawn. The little girls would manage to help her up again, only to see her fall repeatedly. Through Emily's determination we soon learned that she would walk without the crutches and the brace.
After a few weeks she was able to walk everywhere by depending upon the right leg for stability and support and dragging the left leg by force of the hip muscles--right leg then left leg. That achievement on her part at that critical time of challenge has made it possible for her to walk in that manner until recent years when she had the misfortune to fall and fracture her hip. Indeed, she rescued herself from an invalid's life to one of productivity, service and happiness as a mother, housewife and support to her children and husband. All of us who have watched her accomplishments and toleration of pain can agree that righteous determination on her part has made her one of our heroes!"
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| My great-grandparents holding my grandma in 1935 |
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| My great-grandparents Homer and Emily Royle with my grandparents Larry and Nadine Miller in 1994 |
