Profile of Independence
Peggy Blume

             

One day in 2001, Peggy Blume told her supervisor she was going to lunch, just like any of the other five days she works each week at Easter Seals Western Pennsylvania. She didn’t expect anything unusual to happen on her way to the cafeteria. Imagine Peggy’s surprise when she opened the cafeteria doors and saw the entire Easter Seals staff, her family and friends waiting to celebrate her 50th year anniversary with Easter Seals. She still keeps a collage in her living room made for her surprise party by one of the Easter Seals staff members. Her family supplied pictures from the different periods in the 78 years of her life.

In the photographs Peggy sees herself as a young girl, with cerebral palsy, at a time when the doctors still referred to the condition as spastic paralysis. She sees pictures from the 30 years she was able to walk and ride the bus despite her disability. She can remember the years when she took two buses by herself to Easter Seals.

There are pictures from more recent years when Peggy started using a motorized wheelchair to get around. Her doctor told her walking was too hard on her, so she would either have to use a chair or stay at home. “I’ll take the wheel chair,” she said. It has been nine years since her anniversary, and she said she continues to not allow her disability to stop her from being active and doing the things she wants to do.

When she started treatment for her disability as a young girl, Peggy put her positive thinking to work for the first time. She thanks her parents for teaching her how to accept challenges and deal with them. Describing her time at the rehabilitation center, Peggy said proudly, “My dad carried me in, but I walked out.”

Peggy works part-time in Easter Seals’ business services department most often as a front desk receptionist. She gets up at four o’clock in the morning to have enough time to get ready for work. She admits it takes her a little more time now in her 78th year to make sure she’s ready for the day, but it doesn’t stop her.

Throughout her life, Peggy has faced many challenges she didn’t think she would be able to overcome. She describes her approach to difficulties she faces in a very simple but profound way, “I never say I can’t do it. I always try.” She proves to herself daily that with patience she can keep going. Her outlook, simple and profound, is explained best in her own words, “I am blessed.”

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