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Every Life Is An Inspiration

Guest post by: Michael Hume

Article Overview: You may not know it, but today's a big day in history. On this date in 1940, a person you've never heard of was born in northern Oklahoma. She lived a short and difficult life, and she changed the world....

Every Life Is An Inspiration

Some Become Great Leaders, Others Inspire Greatness You may not know it, but today's a big day in history. On this date in 1940, a person you've never heard of was born in northern Oklahoma. She lived a short and difficult life, and she changed the world.

Her last name's not important for now, but her first and middle names were Elizabeth and Louise. Since her mom's name was also Elizabeth, she was called Louise. She grew up in Oklahoma City, the first born of four kids, and the family's only daughter.

Louise was an avid swimmer... and, as was the case for too many kids her age, her long days at the municipal pool probably can be blamed for the polio she contracted when she was 14. Jonas Salk came up with his famous polio vaccine a few months later, but too late to help Louise. She was told she'd likely never walk again, and her chances of leading a "normal" life were thought to be remote.

But Louise's mother had a nursing background. Both mother and daughter were determined to defy the prognosis, and (using the dining room table as a therapy bench), Louise received painful treatment for hours every day. She endured difficult exercises for many additional hours.

She was not superhuman, and often protested or procrastinated her recovery work. Her mother was also human, and sometimes resented the way polio had taken over not only her daughter's life, but her own. But Louise did have extraordinary determination, and her mother had more than her share of patience and endurance. In the end, though she had to become left-handed and did miss out on some of her favorite activities, Louise made almost a full recovery. She walked. She even danced. She grew up, graduated from high school, and started college.

A gifted writer, Louise wanted to be a journalist. She was not an outstanding college student, and whether from her own shortcomings or the discouragement she reported getting from professors who didn't believe women belonged in the press corps, Louise abandoned her studies early. She married a boy from high school, and had two children.

Her marriage didn't work out, and Louise divorced at a time before divorce became as prevalent as it is today, and when the practice was frowned-upon by middle-American society. She found love again, though, and soon remarried. Louise and her new husband sought adventure (and, perhaps, escape from creditors), and relocated often, having three more children together and raising their blended family as they moved from city to city, state to state.

They lived in Phoenix when, at the age of 27, Louise lost her son to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. John Lewis, the first baby of her second marriage, lived only six months. Louise told for years the story of the extraordinary (even supernatural) experiences she had just before the baby's death, and there can be no doubt that John Lewis' death affected her deeply. When he died, so did some of Louise's spirit, and she never regained the full measure of her balance and optimism.

She had written a children's book, "A Pocketful of Pennies," and was shopping it to publishers when the baby died. She abandoned the project after the funeral, and never undertook another major writing project.

She had two more kids, though, both born in the Denver area. The family kept moving - sometimes as frequently as every other month - and Louise found an endless stream of entrepreneurial and other activities in which to invest her energy. Tupperware in Phoenix. Cosmetics in Denver. When she lived in a small Colorado mountain town, Louise opened a lingerie shop that became something of a scandal among some of the prudish local ladies, simply for its existence. She closed the shop, studied to become an Emergency Medical Technician and drove the town's ambulance. When she lived on the Oregon coast, she had gift shop and did calligraphy projects for her clients.

Though she didn't write any more books, Louise used her writing gift to provide feedback to product manufacturers during a time when "focus groups" had yet to rise to prominence. One time her husband complained that the spray nozzle didn't work on the brand-new can of deodorant she'd just bought him. Her witty, hilarious letter of complaint to the manufacturer soon brought a well-dressed young man to the door with cases of deodorant, cans from which became gifts for friends and family. Louise scored several such "prizes" with her ability to write a great letter. She also inspired her kids to be writers, and great communicators.

Louise was a smoker, and that didn't help her overall health. By the time she'd reached her early forties, the combination of unusual relocation stress (including living at every possible altitude), post-polio maladies, and respiratory challenges caused Louise's vitality to rapidly decline. Some of the drugs prescribed by her baffled doctors didn't help, and she even developed some psychotic side-effects. She was hard to live with, and a few days before her 53rd birthday, congestive heart failure finally claimed her life on this Earth.

Today, Louise would have been 71 years old. Her mother is still around, nearly as lively as ever, at 94. So are all of her TLBs (Three-Letter Brothers), Jim, Tom, and Pat. Two of her brothers are clergymen, and the other recently retired from a life of service from the military to university administration.

Louise's surviving children are four of the most interesting people you could meet. Her oldest is an internet entrepreneur, and has done every job from cleaning toilets to acting onstage. Her second-born, the only daughter, is an ordained minister and talented teacher of troubled inner-city kids. Number Three lives in the Oregon woods, and has raised and home-schooled his children with a unique perspective on non-comformity and self reliance. And her youngest owns a computer and web business, and works hard to be the world's best dad.

If she were alive today, Louise would also enjoy the company of more than a dozen grandchildren ranging from elementary-school age to their late twenties. And she'd dote on her two great-grandbabies, aged four and one.

Her children have already accomplished much; her grandchildren are amazingly talented people; and who knows what the two great-grandkids will do to make the world better?

I met Louise the day I was born in 1960, and I have more fond memories of her than memories of the struggles the two of us had. As I mentioned, she became very hard to live with (and I'm not perfect, either). But she had good reasons for her flaws, and in the final analysis, you'd have to say Elizabeth Louise Hume won more battles than she lost, and overcame more adversity than almost anyone you'll meet. And in the way every humble life does, Louise's changed the world, and left behind an inspiring legacy of love and hope.

Happy Birthday, Mom. We miss ya.

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Article Tags: entrepreneurship, health wealth and happiness, inspirational leadership, personal responsibility



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