Polio

Polio — infantile paralysis — is a disease that has almost vanished from collective memory. Thanks to vaccination, it is considered eradicated in much of the world. But those who survived it often carry it for the rest of their lives. In the muscles that no longer move the way others do. In the walking aids, the braces, the surgical scars. In the story of a body that was stopped in the middle of becoming.

And many survivors experience a second wave decades later: post-polio syndrome. Muscles that have compensated for so long begin to exhaust themselves. Strength that was painstakingly rebuilt fades away. The body returns — with the bill for years of quiet endurance.