An incredible journey

In the summer of 1952, at only fifteen, Margaret Dieguez was diagnosed with the polio virus. This year would see sixty thousand documented polio cases and three thousand deaths from the virus. Margaret would be part of the last big epidemic of the virus before Jonah Salk would discover the polio vaccine two years later. After initially being sent home from improving, she would later succumb to polio and be sent to a teaching hospital in Kansas. She would go on to spend forty days in an iron lung, spend five months in an isolation ward, and have eight months of rehabilitation.

Despite being unable to properly use her arms and legs, she rose to meet many challenges and take on life with optimism. While learning to walk again, she married and had children. Soon though, she found herself alone raising her six-year-old son and two-year-old daughter. Margaret then went back to school to earn her teaching credentials and began teaching high school.

An Incredible Journey is the portrait of an amazing woman who overcame so many obstacles in her life. From polio, to cancer, and hospital confinements. For the past twenty years, Margaret has been back in a wheelchair with post-polio syndrome, unable to walk. Despite everything that has come her way, she has not let it drag her down.

Join Margaret and read of the journey she has lived. Her story is one of inspiration and optimism.Her positive attitude, unflinching strength, courage, and her trust in God makes her story an amazing lesson of hope and faith for everyone.

Margret Dieguez was born and raised in Warrensburg, Missouri. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English in St. Mary College in Leavenworth, Kansas. From California State University in Northridge, she has also earned forty-five graduate hours of education. Now, Margaret is retired and living in Lancaster, California.