Broken Yesterdays
“Broken Yesterdays” by Joseph William Meagher is a memoir published by Xlibris Corporation LLC in April 2003, featuring 438 pages in English. The book recounts the author’s experiences after contracting polio at the age of four, which left him with a uniquely shaped back. Through a combination of family support and medical intervention, he navigates the challenges of his condition, ultimately highlighting the contrast between his sheltered upbringing and the harsh realities of the outside world.
Readers will find an honest and often humorous portrayal of Meagher’s childhood, particularly during his four years at a hospital/school for disabled children in Port Jefferson, Long Island. The memoir not only sheds light on the early days of rehabilitative therapy but also emphasizes the resilience and zest for life shared by children facing similar challenges. Meagher’s narrative illustrates his journey of self-acceptance and the choices he made to embrace his individuality rather than succumb to bitterness.
Official synopsis Publisher
In 1922, at the age of four, Joseph William Meagher contracted polio, leaving him with a back shaped like the harp of his Irish ancestors. Only all-night massaging by the family doctor saved him from a wheelchair life. After a barbaric (and fruitless) treatment to straighten his spine, Joe returned home to the shelter of a loving family. But little by little, the cold eye of the outside world made clear to him how different he was.
His parents took medical advice and sent Joe off to Port Jefferson, Long Island, to spend the next four years at a hospital/school for crippled children. Though many there were severely disabled, they had the same unquenchable zest for life as any other kids, and with great innocence and gusto went about the business of being kids in the best way they could.
In addition to presenting a picture of the very beginnings of rehabilitative therapy, Broken Yesterdays is the unswervingly candid and often amusing memoir of a boy who learned early that tears did no good, and that he faced a choice: Either surrender to the bitterness of being different or, through strength of will, make the best of what he had in him. Fortunately for his readers, Joseph William Meagher made the right choice.
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