"When we arrived at Kenny Institute, I first had to meet with the head doctor for a consultation. I inquired about Dad’s condition, and looking me straight in the eye, the renowned physician’s precise words were, 'I have devoted my entire career to the study of polio, and as you see your husband today, his condition will change very little.' I felt like I had been punched in the gut and was momentarily taken aback by his brutal honesty."
And so the saga of Mary Blahnik’s life continued. Born on a southeastern Minnesota farm in 1919, she faced difficult circumstances nearly every step of the way. Attending a Catholic high school during the Great Depression at a tuition rate of one dollar per month, she nevertheless graduated at the top of her class; she thereupon had to regretfully decline an academic scholarship to a prestigious private college due to a lack of supplementary funds. After working as a country school teacher for two years, Mary met and married struggling local farmer Louis Blahnik. The pair fought valiantly to hold on to their primitive farm while raising a large family, that is, until that fateful autumn afternoon in 1950 when Louis was diagnosed with severe spinal-bulbar polio. Then the responsibilities of operating the farm---and looking after their seven young children---suddenly fell squarely upon Mary’s unassuming shoulders…….
