Everyday People: Sharing the story of polio with Davenport fourth graders
Beverly Gustafson was about 15 minutes from Davenport's Adams Elementary when a woman took a seat on the school's front steps.
"I'm waiting for my grandmother, Beverly," Jenelle DeWilfond explained after she commented on the beautiful fall-like weather. "She's here to talk to fourth-graders about polio. She had polio when she was younger.
"But you'd never know it. You'd never guess she is 95 either. She's something. She might not tell you, but I know her secret to a long life."
Jenelle was telling the truth. Beverly did spend a good portion of Friday morning at Adams Elementary telling fourth graders about polio, as well as the importance of not fearing immunizations and doctor's appointments. And how she ended up there is a cool story, too.
It's got some almost-complicated genealogy to wade through, but bear with me.
The fourth graders at Adams are part of a new reading program and one of the books they read was called "Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio," a story of someone who lived through the disease.
A fourth-grader named Layla Miles went home and told her mother, Allison Miles, about the book. Allison just happens to be Jenelle's sister, and a granddaughter of Beverly.
Layla asked if she could invite Beverly to talk about her experiences with polio, and so it came to pass that Friday morning the library at Adams Elementary was jam-packed with fourth-graders.
"I'm just hoping to tell the children how important immunizations are and how much the world has changed since we got them," Beverly said before she talked to the kids.
She went to explain how she was 23 years and was married to Fred Gustafson in 1953. She had two children. Lori was 18 months at the time, and Lyn was 3 years old.
"It was right before Christmas and we went to visit friends and Fred said his back was hurting," Beverly recalled. "He wasn't feeling well and he went to the doctor and they started testing.
"They did a spinal tap, drew that fluid out of his back, and he had polio."
Fred would end up spending a relatively short time in an iron lung and, after partial recovery, spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. He passed away several years ago, from cancer.
Days after Fred's diagnosis, doctors determined Beverly had polio.
"They didn't tell Fred," she said. "They didn't want him to know that there were two small children who might be without their parents. And, of course, there was the worry that they were going to get polio.
"Polio was much worse of small children. It killed so many of them."
Beverly spent three months in the hospital and endured the painful stretching therapy that was used to help loosen the tightening muscles that accompany the disease.
"I lost use of (my left) arm, and I still can't raise my right one above my head," she said.
Beverly told the students how she went to work and Fred became the stay-at-home parent. That role expanded when, years later, Beverly became pregnant with the couple's third daughter, Jodi.
"Can you imagine? Pregnant? That was the last thing we ever expected," Beverly told the fourth-graders. "I didn't know how we were going to do it. I didn't know how we were going to raise an infant.
"I had never been so afraid of something six pounds in my life."
Beverly and the students shared a laugh.
"Time went on and you don't give up," Beverly said. "People always ask me how we made it through and how I've made it to 95.
"I always tell them positive thinking and prayer."
An hour before Beverly uttered those words, Jenelle revealed the real formula for reaching 95. Seems Beverly left out one key ingredient. Chalk up the exclusion to the age of the audience.
"I probably shouldn't say this, but Beverly has two Bud Lights every morning," Jenelle said. "It's true.
"I have this favorite picture of Beverly. She's sitting at the kitchen table with a rosary in her left hand and Bud Light in her left. And I swear to God, there's a clock in the background and it says 10:30 a.m.
"That's her secret."
Positive thinking. Prayer. And a couple of Bud Lights.
reporter/columnist
