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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 18, 1986)
T7 Nolblbmaffii sort o -V- .rr -i, i By Randy G. Donner " TU$ story mas esTrI.tr J fiv i;: lively cc.1 hc;th. 11 3 f r;t .r'.K'-v, ... a A TO) " . - .... r t . ; L ( - . ! ! 1- ' - ' ' ' ' ' ' f 1 ' i svii' Li iaw 'om tn xu4 V iiitiii 1 1 l-.l , U I m U t ' ' ' .0.1 1 A .r- i M y a(l : heroic, cneery, spiritual, sn wonderfully br octane 1 i f e ravery comes in many forms. Sometimes you find it on a battlefield ... a quick response a reflex action almost that saves lives or wins a battle. They give medals for that kind of bravery. Sometimes you find bravery in more unlikely settings behind a half-open door at a Lincoln nursing home, for instance. "Come in, come in," calls the cheery voice. Sitting in a wheelchair is a smallish woman with bobbed, grayish-black hair. Some cross-stitching lies unattended in the woman's lap as she watches the day's episode of "The Young and the Restless.". Jane Nobbman smiles, sets the handiwork aside and backs the wheelchair against the wall to make more space. It's a small room, filled with memorabilia. There are pictures ' a framed photo of Jane and her husband on their wedding day, and an 8 X 1 0 of her mother. There is a set of shelves in the window holding a variety of plants. It's a snug little room . . .just space enough for Jane, her roommate Ellen and . . . well, a lot of courage. Jane Nobbman is dying, you see. She knows that. The doctors have told her there is nothing they can do about the cancer which is moving swiftly through her kidneys and liver. So she accepts it, quietly, without complaint. "I wasn't angry or disappointed or anything . . .1 accepted it more as a thing that had to be," she says. Jane has accepted much as "something that had to be." Just a few years out of high school, she contracted polio. About 15 years later she was hospitalized with multiple sclerosis. And now, terminal cancer. But Jane will tell you that life hasn't been bad. She has fond childhood memories of times spent with her parents, of her twin sister, of growing up during the Depression. She has wonderful memories of dating a man, who she later married. She has loving memories of her two children, Ver yldean and Margie. And, Jane has spent nearly two-thirds of her life living with the effects of major illnesses. But she has never felt cheated. "I've had so much of it that I never gave it a thought." Jane was hospitalized with polio in 1943. Polio was reach ing epidemic proportions. And although she had heard a lot about the disease, Jane didn't think that it would strike her. It did. She remembers that she had been sick for about 10 days. She thought she had the flu, so she continued to teach her grade schoolers in rural Lancaster County. Then the paraly sis came. Jane couldn't walk. Hospitalized in Lincoln's Orthopedic Hospital, Jane didn't have to wait for the spinal tap results to know what was wrong. The linen on her hospital bed was marked "polio." The paralysis faded and Jane was able to leave-the hospi tal after four months. She left with only a slight, limp. But she also left feeling disappointed that she couldn't do many of the things she had been able to do before. She remembers a dream from the hospital. "... I dreamt and 1 dreamt that I could run, and when I'd wake up, 1 couldn't run. So 1 dreamt I was awake and it wasn't a dream, and then I'd still wake up, and I still couldn't run." Seizures, which caused twitches in her arms and legs, were the first symptoms of Jane's multiple sclerosis. And "awful headaches." That was in 1960. Jane has been confined to a wheelchair ever since. Unable to use the lower part of her body, Jane needs help with many daily activities activities that for most people would be simple, such as climbing out of bed or getting dressed or going to the bathroom. And until her husband Arthur's death in 1979, he served as the full-time aid Jane needed. The best help she could have, Jane says. After Arthur's fatal stroke, Jane's daughter Margie moved in to care for her mother. Between Margie and Vcryldean, Jane received the care she needed. But Jane couldn't tolerate that arrangement very long. "I didn't feel like I. should be a burden on them . . . someone has to be around all the time to take care of me and if they wanted to do something, it just wasn't possible." So Jane moved into Lancaster Manor, where nurses and aides provide the necessary help. But the need for constant care hasn't stopped Jane from keeping busy. She plays the triangle and the washboard as a member of the Lancaster Manor Rhythm Band. She takes ceramics classes. She is a game fanatic, (ask her Pitch vic tims). And she participates in Bible studies. But her favorite pasttime comes just after she and good friend Ellen have gone to bed. Ellen pulls back the striped curtain that separates their two beds and the women talk. They share the stories of best friends. They talk of the day that passed, of their children and of their pasts (both have a twin sister). "She's just Jane, that's all," Ellen says. "She doesn't try to be more than she is, just (a) plain-to-earth girl." It has been four weeks since Jane found out about the cancer. "It was kind of a shock," she says, "I just didn't have any feeling." It still seems somewhat like a dream to her. "Its just is not that big of a reality, I suppose . . . like something that will go away ... I don't think it really hit home or something ..." Jane takes medicine now to ease the pain. But the cancer causes a constant ache below her rib cage and a sharper pai n in her back if she pushes against the back of the wheelchair. The doctor hasn't talked about how much time Jane has left, but she is concerned about the speed with which the cancer has been growing. And when death comes? "Faith helps vou accept it," she savs softlv, and smiles. They don't give medals for that kind of courage. They should.- The SowerPss 8 l ) . . t . 1 .. V ' , ' ' 1 . 1 . . t ' , 1 i i J , I 1 ' I a J u w .: iv.t f r i: i r .'V -nv .ti.. ) i ii-.i ,:; u -i:;. ih- -,; a i, In invito
