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Two-Year-Old Polio Victim Finds New Home In City

Two-Year-Old Polio Victim Finds New Home In City image
Parent Issue
Day
17
Month
September
Year
1954
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Copyright Protected
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
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As Ward Of Court:

Two-Year-Old Polio Victim Finds New Home In City

By Louis Graff

Virtually everything in Bobbie Snyder's life is in quotations.

Everything except his future, and that is the real thing.

For nearly two years now, Bobbie's "home" has been the University's Respirator Center. The doctors and nurses were his "father" and "mother." 

In a sense things won't change too much for Bobbie. He has gone to another "home". Only this time he changes from a polio patient to a "patient," because from now on, he will have to return to the Center a few times a week. 

When Bobbie first arrived at the Center he was six weeks old, and his tiny curls outlined the portal of the huge respirator as if a soft kitten were standing at the backdoor mewing to be let out.

But now. two years later. Bobbie has a real cat and a real collie. Bobbie has gone to live with Mr and Mrs. Orval E. Murray. 414 Westwood Ave.

Is Ward Of Court

Bobbie is a ward of the court, and the Murrays and their seven-year-old son. Teddie. have agreed to let Bobbie come and live with them.

Did you ever think you’d miss being able to sprawl out on a warm rug in your living room? Think of what it must mean to a little two-year old. There's a nice, big. warm rug in the Murray's living room. Did you ever think you’d miss being able to look out the window to watch saucy robins tugging away at worms? Bobbie can do that, too, now.

He can sit at a real kitchen table eating chocolate pudding and cookies as chocolate pudding and cookies should be eaten.

And in the summer time he has a big play yard filled with such terrific things as a bird house, a swimming tank, a barbecue fireplace. and those indispensable swings.

Life May Be Strange

As wonderful as all these are, life is bound to be a little strange for a while for Bobbie. Things were touch-and-go at times for him. But when they subsided, there were always people around who, having heard about him, asked, “where's Bobbie Snyder? Is he still here?"

In fact, Bobbie almost became more accustomed to the flash of photographers’ bulbs than he did to the feel of mud pies. His home-life was largely a matter of uniforms, and his family consisted of bedfellows.

If this sounds unappreciative, remember this isn’t Bobbie talking. As far as he is concerned he has had a pretty nice "family" there In the hospital. And love, whether in a white coat or a white uniform, was unselfish and tender.

At Bobbie's going-away party, a couple nurses slipped out with tears in their eyes, because as wonderful as it was for Bobbie, it was hard to think of his leaving.

Mrs. Murray reports that Bobble's first night In his new bed was a peaceful one. There weren’t any tears. And he has eaten like a GI in training.

He’s 'All Boy'

"He’s all two-year-old and all boy," said Mrs. Murray.

"He knows how to say ’No.’ and he can yell if his braces aren’t adjusted properly."

Teddie, the Murrays’ son, is also all boy. “He’s not going to wear my new jacket," said Ted.

The whole Bobbie Snyder career is something like a community miracle. The doctors who pulled him through. The nurses who cared for him. The social worker who played the role of "aunt” as if she had been cast for the role. The teachers In the Hospital School. The National Foundation. Everybody.

Now "everybody” includes the Murrays and their son, a family which has opened its home and its heart to little Bobbie Snyder. They are supplying another ingredient to the miracle: a loving hand for little Bobbie’s unsteady back.