Marcia

When the same doctor who had cared for Marcia as a child began caring for her own children, he was in awe that she was even alive, let alone raising a family. He remembered her as a 13 year old 7th grader in 1956, when he had diagnosed her with TB meningitis. Marcia recovered at Firland TB Sanatorium, where she made a lifelong friend and underwent the arduous work of relearning how to read, write and walk.

In Marcia's words...

“I said, ‘Dad, I have to be here at the sanatorium for a year?’ He said, ‘I know, I talked with the doctor.’ And then we both cried.”

“I might be writing a letter to home when, in comes the doctor! I had to lay on my side, roll into a ball and get into that position for that spinal tap. Had them twice a day. I had to lay on my back for at least 2 months, and I used a walker to learn to walk again.

There was another girl with the same disease. She had the TB meningitis. The nurses said they would get us together when she came out of her coma. We stayed friends forever. Once we were discharged, our families did everything together.”

Marcia, Snohomish County