One night two men broke into her apartment. Jenny's attendants had tied her into bed before going
home leaving Jenny totally alone. Jenny could see the men coming towards her but had absolutely no way to escape.
My Painting
“JENNY IN HER WHEELCHAIR SURROUNDED BY ANGELS"
Running for Miss America and studying to be a doctor at the tender age of 18, Jenny dove into a lake and from that moment on her young life changed forever.
Her severe spinal cord injury left her unable to move any part of her body except for her fingertips. Jenny's brilliance helped her locate and attend the most advanced rehabilitation center in the country. They taught Jenny how to function as a paraplegic including training her attendants.
Jenny had extremely supportive parents who helped her complete college while living alone in her own apartment. Her attendants had to tie Jenny into bed before they left for the night to keep her severe spasms from throwing her on the floor.
She was an extremely independent and motivated young woman. When most people would have given up, Jenny smiled and kept going full speed ahead from the confines of her wheelchair. She made new realistic goals and worked hard to obtain them.
Of course her dream of running for Miss America was history, but her brilliant mind enabled her to obtain her masters degree in vocational rehabilitation. Jenny used her mouth to hold pencils to operate her computer.
And getting her driver's license to be able to drive her own van was another dream Jenny never accomplished due to her violent spasms. But she continued to have experimental surgeries, in the hopes of controlling them which unfortunately did not work.
I lived close to Jenny and secured a job through the college to be one of her attendants to help support my budding art career! We became close friends and she was a major mentor and guide in my life. I grew in leaps and bounds mentally and spiritually around Jenny.
I would load Jenny and her wheelchair into the back of her van and off we would go! One time we went to a Hollywood producers house where I, with Jenny's support, pitched my movie script proposal to him.
Another time we attended an art show in La Jolla, California of Francoise Gilot who was once the mistress of the famous painter Picasso. Dr. Jonas Salk, who discovered the polio vaccine was Francoises husband at the time and I was thrilled to have had the opportunity to meet both of them. Her paintings looked exactly like Picasso's!
Jenny helped me (or tried to help me as I am something of a rebel) with one of my medical inventions and continued to be a critical guide in my life, pushing me to go beyond my fears of getting my art in the world. At that time, I was unaware that female painters were still 'on the back of the bus' and that I would have to work a trillion times harder then I had realized to get my art out.
Through her forty operations, never did Jenny’s beautiful eyes stop twinkling and her amazing sense of humor kept all of her attendants, family and friends in complete awe of her.
I do not believe anyone ever heard Jenny complain. She talked to her family over the phone nightly and I am certain their support gave her the added strength necessary to keep going beyond obstacles most people could never have endured.
One night, two men broke into her apartment. Jenny's attendant had already tied her to her bed to control her spasms before leaving for the night. Jenny was totally alone and saw the men coming towards her but had absolutely no way to escape. At that exact moment, her two cockatiels started squawking so loudly, they scared off the assailants!
I never heard Jenny angry even when I was driving and turned a corner too fast, tipping her over in her wheelchair. Her twinkling eyes poured loving acceptance straight into my heart.
She was annoyed when one of her attendants stole her van but even then Jenny's keen intelligence kept her on the path of teaching instead of blaming and the attendant continued to work for her long after the incident.
How many people were fortunate enough to have crossed the path of this most remarkable young and beautiful woman will never be known but because Jenny graced this earth, our lives were touched by an angel that changed each of us for the better forever.
Beautiful Jenny; Angel of Wisdom, Thank-You!
Judy Joy Jones
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Forty surgeries sounds like Jenny was being experimented on. Although there was some talk about tendon moving in my hands and fingers, and later wires implanted from a chest stimulator, thankfully that was never done to me. I learned later the implants had to be removed. Of the many spinal injured people that I knew through the years, most with their lives cut short, the ones with surgeries, died much younger. One that I knew, a young millionaire with an injury similar to Jenny at 19, died by 29 in spite of his efforts through surgeries to get better.
You stated that she was paraplegic (two limbs affected). For 30 years, I gradually lost ability through neuron loss from mere aging and no replacement. That continues. Twenty-seven years ago I became quadriplegic and I had to seek attendants, hiring them through local grocery store ad sheets. I got some great help. There was turnover, but my partner, who started working with me back then is still with me to the end, doing many things for me this morning before leaving for her shop.
It was back then that I needed someone at night because I was tripping and falling and soon into an electric wheelchair although I used scooters at work and drove my unmodified car until I no longer could in 1995. In 1998, I bought a van and had it modified, thanks to the largess of the state of Texas who foot the bill of $70,000. I drove that van 95,000 miles, mostly alone back and forth from work. And then I bought another van in 2006, also modified for $90,000 by the state, and drove that van up until three years ago to 65,000 miles, mostly alone. My attendants drive me now.
As a quadriplegic, I need someone to turn me every half hour or so and keep my arms from rising above my head where they are painful and I can't put them back down. I also have spasms and have thought of the possibility of tying my legs down and my arms down so they will not spasm and get in those awkward positions. I'm sure Jenny was always adjusting to her situation like I've had to do for 56 years. We have to be resourceful for ourselves because even with the best attendants, only we know, not even the doctors, what is best for us. Most people find Dragon that I'm using to write these words, hard to use. It is a lifesaver allowing me to write all my books and these many long comments.
I commend you for being Jenny's attendant for a while. It takes a special person with special patience to work with people that are as high strung and determined as Jenny and I are. Unfortunately, attendants here in the state of Texas are paid poverty wages and have to work very long hours to make ends meet.
Ron