Born Linda Darnice
Nunweiler on December 5, 1955, forty one
days prior to my mother’s actual delivery
date, I weighed in at 5 pounds 5 ounces. Of
course, there is a story behind my birth; a
winter storm had blanketed the area with
inches of fresh snow. The fresh snow had
covered underlying ice.
After having driven to
the doctor’s office for her monthly
check-up, she stepped out of the car, hit a
patch of ice and fell, landing hard on the
ground before sliding forward, her tomach
acting as a wedge to stop her from sliding
totally beneath the vehicle. The fall
induced labor, several hours later, I was
born.
Within a few days of my
birth at Tri-County memorial Hospital in
Gowanda, NY, I would be transferred to the
better equipped hospitals of Buffalo, where
my mother would learn that all medical
probabilities indicated that I would not
survive.
Born with what the
medical professionals now call dysphagia,
which meant that I could not swallow. Even
the liquid diet of an infant was far too
complicated a meal. To complicate matters, I
was also born with cancer.
There was a surgical
procedure that had shown promise in some
cases, but the doctors warned my mother that
even if the surgery was successful, it
would only prolong my agony and my eventual
death. Doctors gave me one year to live if
the surgery was successful.
Louise & Linda Nunweiler
Chester & Shirley Grudzien & Linda Nunweiler
Larry Allen & Linda Nunweiler
