Jane Ann Lovell, Greene County

Interviewee: Jane Ann Lovell
Interviewer: Annette Wetteland
Date of Interview: 11/07/07
Location of Interview: Perry Public Library, Perry Iowa
Run Time: Approximately 45M

Cassette
Biographical Data Form
Oral History Release
Photograph (1)
Transcript

Jane Lovell did not know anything about polio until she contracted it in September of 1950. She was just seven years old and starting the second grade. She remembered, “I know I went to the doctor at least once. Then, another time we went to the doctor in Jefferson. They sent us to Des Moines to Blank Children’s Hospital. I remember being in isolation and being really ill. I also had the chicken pox and the mumps while I was there.”

Lovell received treatment at Blank from September of 1950 until May of 1951. She remembers having physical therapy five times a week. She had a brace on each leg - fastened together by a band in the middle. In her oral history, she mentioned that physical therapists at Blank taught the children how to fall. “It really made an impression and I did not mind it too much unless I had been home for a few days. Making yourself fall when you knew how much work it was going to be to pick yourself back up was not much fun. I have thought over the years that those lessons probably saved my neck a lot of times because I have rarely hurt myself. Other people have claimed to look around to see if anybody is watching – I just assess whether or not I have been hurt and figure out how to get myself picked back up. I am so glad somebody [taught us how to fall] because it is one of those lasting things that I definitely remember.”