Mabel brought me to Middleboro where she worked summers at Lakeville State Sanitorium. She let me watch while she and an aide gathered up the littlest ones and spread them on the lawn, on mats where they could crawl or nap in the sun -- completely bare. Mabel believed in the sun's cure or at least benefit. These children had polio or some bone problem, and she believed a daily dose of sun just might help. She had the aide take me into the hospital while she sat with the babies outside.
Inside I couldn't believe my eyes. Young children with complete body casts, arms and legs fully active, some with lesser casts -- making their way, however they could, from crib to crib, shouting, laughing, pulling at one another and having a great time and the place was as raucous as any playground I've been in in.
It was beautifully noisy, and sad.
