Q: Summarize the devastating work it took to cope with Franklin's polio.
A: My grandmother was suddenly, practically overnight, faced with the feeding and caring of five children, the just day-to-day taking care of children who suddenly realize their father is very ill, and they're scared, they don't know what's happening. My grandmother is scared. She's not sure what's happening. She's waiting for expert doctors to come. And here's a man who's in agony with every move, if he could even move. So it was left to my grandmother to nurse him continually. My guess is that he wasn't able to sleep a lot, and he would wake up and be in pain. And my grandmother, of course, was right next to him. She slept in the room on a cot. She would then have to literally help him, if he was going to try and sit up, or help him when he needed to use the bathroom. Just the everyday kinds of things that we're used to doing. She brought him his food. He didn't feel very well, so I'm sure he didn't eat much. So she was trying to help him eat, because she knew that that was important, no matter what. And at the same time, she has five children who are saying, "What's wrong? What's wrong?" And, "What are we going to do today?" And, "There's nothing to do." The same kinds of things that any five children would be worrying about and thinking about when they're on summer vacation.
Q: How did the polio affect the children?
A: I think, from what I've understood, at first the older ones were a little bit afraid because they'd never seen their father ill before. They knew something terrible was happening because he wasn't getting out of bed and he wasn't his boisterous self. And they were kept out of the room so that he could rest. And that had never happened. They usually had pretty free access to their father. And this was the summer home, the place where they played with their father all the time. That's a pretty scary thing for any child. So I'm sure that even for my father, who was only five– he knew something was wrong. He probably wouldn't have been able to articulate how he felt about it, but it would have been a very scary kind of thing for any child, and particularly in this setting, which was: This is where the family played and did things together, went on hikes, went on picnics, went sailing, did all kinds of things. And suddenly their father's confined to this bed. And they know he's in pain, and they know that he's very, very ill.
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