It's not the typi
cal rags-to-riches
story . In fact, it
is the opposite
It's a story of new ,
beginnings
"I suppore in the world's eyes, it looks like
my life is a sorry mess now," she said, "and
it's anything but that."
Certainly Linda has not lost her beauty
queen smile, a genuinely happy grin.
Carefully coiffed brown hair frames her oval
face. The face is thinner at 42, but it retains
the high round cheeks of you youth. Her
blue-gray eyes hit at her wry sense of humor.
The ever-present red wheelchair gives
evidence of her disability. And there is a
slight tremor in her voice when she talks.
But it is Linda Strasheim's spirit that
commands attention.
Sharon Frey knows abdlit that spirit. A
close friend, she described Linda as an
"other-directed" person, a person who draws
people to her and makes them feel comfort
able. Randall Bretz, the director of media pro
ductions at Linda's church, knows that
spirit, too.
"She has amazed me at her outlook on
life," Bretz said. "She's a very caring
individual."
And Linda is a woman who pushes the
limits of her disability, Mrs. Frey said.
"She's a person who sets goals and is not
satisfied to remain with the status quo,?
Mrs. Frey said. "She really is a person who
says, 'OK, Lord, here I am.' Every week she
calls me with something new."
Mrs. Frey recalls the day Linda invited
her over for an exercise session.
"I thought that would last about five or 10
minutes," Mrs. Frey said. But 30 minutes
later, it was Mrs. Frey who was huffing and
puffing while Linda urged her to keep up
and do "just 10 more."
Developing a positive perspective on life
has been a long, hard pull for Linda. She
wrote of the struggle in "Something Beauti
ful,"an autobiography published last spring
by Zondervan Publishing House.
In the book, Linda sketches a childhood
spent happily tagging along with her father
and trying to climb the biggest trees. As she
grew older, she turned her drive to other
things. Being a social success, becoming a
Miss Kansas.
And she wrote of the first troubling
symptoms of an unknown problem. A prob
lem that wouldn't go away. When it became
too hard to keep her job, she escaped into
marriage. Bug she found no relief.
Instead, her sleepy hours got longer. She
lost more control over her muscles and often
she couldn't keep down her dinner. Finally
her husband and her mother convinced her
to see a doctor. Two doctors and a psychia
trist later, Linda's problem was labeled "hys
terical paralysis."
The psychiatrist recommended immediate
placement in the state mental hospital. In
desperation,. she agreed. She agreed, too,
when the psychiatrist said a divorce might
help her mental state and let her walk again.
But she remained bedfast.
Finally, additional tests yielded a new
diagnosis multiple sclerosis. Linda sat on
her bed after hearing the diagnosis, encircled
by information pamphlets on MS.
"I thought someone forgot to give me the
pamphlet that tells me the cure," she said.
The struggle really began when Linda left
the hospital to face life with a disability.
She wanted to commit suicide, she wrote.
She decided to drown herself in the bathtub
because she couldn't hold a razor straight
enough to cut her wrist. But every time she
tried, her mother or three sisters thwarted
her plans by popping in the bathroom to
chat.
Her father, on the other hand, could never
quite come to terms with a favorite daughter
in a wheelchair. Linda wrote of his unex
plained silences with her, his disappearan
ces. Later she realized her parents had been
having marital problems for many years.
Back then she thought she was the problem.
Her chance to escape finally came with an
invitation from relatives in CaliforniaThere,
during an extended stay, the determination
that had pushed her into Miss Kansas page
ant finally reasserted itself. She took a cou
ple of college classes and she met new
friends.
nd she found her faith ... at a Billy
Graham crusade.
She began speaking to various groups for
the National MS Society. Soon she was
invited to represent the society in a meeting
with then-First Lady Pat Nixon. Before and
after photos of her were used in the society's
poster campaign.
When financial problems ended her stay
in California, Linda went home, but was
determined not to stay there. She enrolled in
Emporia State Teachers College in Kansas.
At that time, Emporia was one of few college
designed for people in wheelchairs.
If was at Emporia that Del Strasheim
found Linda. Then a 31 -year-old architect
from Lincoln, Del was no stranger to dis
ability. He had a partial hearing loss from a
childhood bout with measles.
Several years earlier, Strasheim had
clipped a Parade magazine article about
Linda. The article, a before-and-after look
at former beauty queens, was written while
she was in the national MS poster campaign.
Something about the woman the article des
cribed as "spunky" sparked his interest. Two
more articles about Linda in different maga
zines caught his eye in the next three years.
Now, something prompted Strasheim to
drive the 250 miles to Emporia to meet her.
It took three trips before he was successful,
but he was not disappointed.
They were married in May 1976.
During their courtship, Strasheim had
suggested the autobiography, Linda said.
From that first idea to the final publication
took 10 years of work. She went through
two co-authors in the ptocess. And she
relived a lot of "I sat there at that typewriter
just crying," she said, "and the whole time
thinking 1 was going to rust out my keys. It
was marvelous cleansing for me, but I
wouldn't want to go through it again."
Her tears had one positive result, how
ever. She became closer to her father after he
read the book. At first, he told her, he wasn't
sure if he was the hero or the bum of the
story. But hearing her story has softened
him, Linda said.
And Linda has learned to let go of the
past. Her husband helped her take the first
step. They threw her scrapbooks in the
dumpster and gave away her trunkful of
evening gowns in a symbolic burial of by
gone days. Today, instead of thinking about
what might have been, she said, she has
adopted a more positive perspective.
But the struggle is not over. Just the daily
activities of living take mopst of her limited
energy, she said.
A normal day begins at 8 a.m. She exer
cises along with a TV exercise show, using
the set as both physical and moral support.
Then there's breakfast that her husband
leaves for her.
"That's one way he supports me," she
said, "because he knows that on cold morn
ings putting a breakfast together would take
a lot of energy."
Before starting lunch, she has time for a
few small tasks. As a disabled housewife,
every household job takes longer, she said.
Her husband has lowered the counters, sink
and stove in the kitchen so she can work
easily from her wheelchair.
After lunch, she sends out greeting cards
to friends or others who need a cherry word
or she does crafts or works around the
house. In late-afternoon she takes a nap
before starting supper.
Later, she and her husband work on their
prayer list, praying for people in the church
who request special thoughts. They watch
the weather on the all-weather cable televi
sion channel. And then at 9 p.m. they head
for bed.
"I know my life sounds maybe a little bit
dreary," Linda said, "but it's not to me, it's
beautiful. Just living is fun."
Some days the living is more fun than,
others, though. Some days she doesn't even
have the energy to write. A bout with flue
this fall kept her in bed for three weeks. And
on days like those, Linda said, she still fights
the feelings of discouragement.
"Sometimes I think if I have one more
gray, cloudy, cold, lonesome day, I'll tear
my hair out," she said. "That's when I really
have to pray for strength to get through it."
inda credits her faith for giving her the
strength to deal with her disability. Mrs.
Frey says Linda's own determination is
amazing. Linda, Mrs. Frey said, has been
able to turn her struggle into opportunities.
Over the last few years, Linda has spoken
to several women's groups and Christian
groups in Lincoln and nearby towns. Since
her book came out, she has been on Chris
tian radio talk shows in such places as Kan
sas City and Denver. A v ideotaped interview
with her has been distributed to Christian
TV stations around the nation. This fall she
will be the main speaker at a regional
seminar on ministering to the disabled.
Even when at home, she reaches out to
others. She has developed a "ministry of
encouragement" with her greeting cards and
she has the daily prayer list. She grows Afri
can violets to be given to people who are
hospitalized or confined at home. Recently
she taught a series of Bible study classes on
"How to be a Godly Wife."
ometimes the price of her efforts is a day
or more in bed. But Mrs. Frey said that
Linda often choses to pay the penalty in
order to get things done.
"She really does a lot and then she has to
recuperate and she does something and has
to recuperate," Mrs. Frey said. "It's difficult,
but again it would be easy for someone to
just give up and she doesn't. She's accomp
lished more than the average person because
she's that way."
Linda's attitude, plus careful attention to
her diet, exercise and rest, have made her
physically stronger than in her days in the
state hospital. And her doctor agrees that
her attitude is keeping the MS under con
trols Characteristically, MS is a progressive
disease. Patients are expected to die younger
than normal.
The future is scary, Linda admitted. An
uncharacteristic quiet overtakes her.
Then she laughs again. Her husband's
hearing loss is progressive, too, she said, so
at least they're going downhill together.
"You see why I keep talking, keep repeat
ing about my trust in the Lord. I have to,
that's all I've got.
"The future could be very, very frighten
ing if I let it . . . but I won't let myself,
because I could have myself in tears in five
minutes if I thought too hard about things.
"I won't do it."
"I thought some
one forgot to give
me the pamphlet
that tells me the
cure"
Page 3 The Sower