Reply #60: My father.

[frustrated_lefty]

He was the kind of man people laugh at here. Hell, I wrote him off a long time ago, haven't spoken with him in many, many years.

I remember his mother telling me about this. He came down with polio when he was a young child. His parents, I think like any good parents would do, knelt to the floor and started praying to the only god they knew and swore they would cast aside all sin if only god would save their child.

He recovered, completely. In his twenties, he took a stab at being a rodeo star.

From the point of his recovery onwards, his parents never smoked, never touched a drop of alcohol, never spoke ill of another human being. They attended church every week, donated every week, brought fresh fruit and vegetables from the farm to the foster home and periodically went down the road to share dinner with the preacher. It's not for me to think about, but they never had another child in all their years of marriage.

Polio had a profound impact on a lot of lives.