Suzi's Story
By: K. Richard (Dick) Helms
 Jacqueline Suzanne (Suzi) Helms
was born on January 1, 1947 in the beautiful country of
France the daughter of a young unwed French girl and a married occupation soldier. Suzi's
birth mother having no way of supporting or caring for her young daughter in war torn
France, made the only truly loving choice to allow her beautiful little girl to be adopted
by a loving childless American couple. Dick and Ruby Helms had been married for over seven
years and try as they would they could not have children. The doctors had told Ruby that
she would never be able to have children (they were later proved wrong) due to physical
irregularities and yet the couple had so much love to give. So Dick and Ruby took little
Suzi into their home and into their hearts. There was never a more loved little girl.
Later with the help of friends in the U.S. State Department they were able to adopt her
and take her home to America to Ambridge, PA where she lived together with her parents and
her two little brothers (I told you the doctors were wrong) Kelison
Richard (Dick) Helms, Jr. and Andrew (Andy) James Helms. When
Suzi was three years old the family moved to Smethport, PA and life was great.
 In the fall (September)
of 1954, at the age of seven Suzi contracted Polio. All we kids knew
of Polio at the time was that it was some terrible sickness that was
spoken of by adults only in whispers and with great fear. Dr. Hockenberry came to the
house (yes, doctors did make house calls then) and Dick and Ruby rushed Suzi off to the
hospital in Bradford, PA.
One can only try to imagine how frightened, even terrified, they were for her. For the
next few days they spent most of their time at the hospital. A few days later Jacqueline
Suzanne (Suzi) Helms entered the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Suzi's funeral was one of the largest Smethport, PA had ever seen. The casket was
covered with glass and the viewing room filled with flowers was glassed off. Suzi's
tombstone reads "THY WILL BE DONE". But, Dick and Ruby never stopped crying.
On March 26, 1953,
Dr.
Jonas Edward Salk, a friend of Dick's, announced the development of the first vaccine
against polio. After successful wide-scale testing in 1954, the vaccine was
distributed nationally in 1955, just months after Suzi's death,. The 1954 epidemic, was
the last of the great Polio epidemics in America. Thank God.
Copyright � 1998 K. Richard
(Dick) Helms all rights reserved |
