• At 30 years of age Wayne became the father of Joshua Geurink in LaGrange, IL, January 8, 1974.
• At 32 years of age Wayne became the father of Kristin Geurink in LaGrange, IL, April 25, 1976.

At the age of four, in 1948, Wayne was hospitalized with polio (Infantile Paralysis). He was treated in the isolation ward of St. Mary's Hospital, Wausau, WI from late summer of 1948 to early spring of 1949. This occurred during a polio epidemic, which lasted for several years.

I remember going on a picnic with mom, my cousin David Kluever, and his mom, my Aunt Verona Kluever. We rode out toward grandma and grandpa Geurink's farm, east of Wausau on County Road N in our new car. It was a 1948 Plymouth, black, with four doors. David and I wrestled and played in the back seat.

We stopped to pick blackberries in a woodlot for a few hours in the late morning. Although I had been in the woods before, that day I encountered the first snake I had ever seen. It was a little green grass snake and I almost stepped on it before it moved. That's why I saw it. I wasn't afraid but when I yelled for mom to come she dragged me away and warned me never to touch a snake because they might bite.

When the berry picking was done we drove to the nearby Eau Claire River and parked on Eau Claire River Rd, near the County Highway N bridge over the river. Grandma and Grandpa Geurink's farm property ended at the river right across from where we were parked. Here we had a picnic lunch. It was a hot day and we all waded into the river. The river is very shallow in this area so David and I played in and around the water for a few hours until it was time to jump in the car for the ride home. I remember feeling tired and sleeping on the trip home.

I slept well that night but I woke up early feeling woozy. I felt hot and my back, from the neck down, was very stiff. Mom took my temperature and called the doctor. When she hung up the phone she got me dressed and we drove to our doctor's office. The doctor, Dr. Al Stahmer, examined me and talked to mom for a short time. When we left Mom drove straight to St Mary's Hospital and checked me in.

We were escorted to a wing at the far rear of the hospital by a Nun, who I came to know as Sister Vivian. Sister Vivian stopped when we came to the entrance of what I later learned was called the Isolation Ward. Mom couldn't go all the way with me. She had to stay there. We were met by nurses who took me to a room. I don't remember feeling afraid. Mom had assured me that people were going to come who would help me feel better.

The nurses undressed me and put me in a hospital gown. They put me in a bed and wrapped me in something like hot, damp towels, which they took out of a machine that looked like a big version of the pressure cooker my grandma Kluever used. Occasionally they replaced the wrappings with more hot towels and eventually I fell asleep. When I woke up I could see that I was in bed in a room with other kids. I was too tired or sick to be afraid. The hot, damp towel wrap was a daily routine for a number of weeks. I also received a daily shot in my "hinder," which the nurses taught me to tolerate bravely.

Eventually the towel routine changed. The stiffness moved out of my back and down to my legs, finally settling in my right leg. When that leg got better they stopped the treatments and the shots.

Sister Vivian spent a lot of time with me. She gave me pencil and paper, and taught me make lines and circles. She worked with me on the alphabet. She also gave me physical therapy daily, moving and twisting my neck, body, arms and legs. As I got stronger she would get me on my feet and help me try to walk. First with crutches, then without. I think they knew when I was feeling better because I had made friends with kids in other rooms and I would sneak out of my room at night to visit my friends. I remember my first walk with her holding my hand in the hallway outside my room. The walks got longer and eventually she took me down a flight of stairs to a little chapel where she let me look around.

Mom, dad and my sister, Shirley, couldn't come to see me at first. After awhile I would be taken to the entrance area where I could see them through the glass in the doors. They would bring things for me, which the nurses would get, and we would wave at each other. When I got better they could come to my room.

My roommate was a boy named Joey. He was a few years older. We got along well. Joey lived on a farm and he told me about the things he did. His polio had settled in his arm so he could move around well but he couldn't use his left arm. Joey was the instigator of our nightly visits to see our neighbors. Joey got to go home long before I did but I continued to make nightly visits whenever I could.

During the days of my recovery Sister Vivian began to take me to an area where people were laying inside big cylinder shaped tanks called iron lungs. These were people who couldn't breathe without help from the machine. They lay on their backs with only their heads outside of the iron lung. Mirrors were attached to the lung above their faces and angled so they could see the area of the room in front of their lung. We visited these people daily. They were all young men and we would talk to them. Occasionally Sister Vivian would read things for them. Thinking back I would guess they were in their late teens or early 20's. I came to like these visits and I looked forward to seeing the men. One day we went to visit and the man I liked the most wasn't there. When I asked for him I was told that he had gone to visit Jesus. This happened with two other men I had become friends with before I left the hospital.

On hot days after I arrived at the hospital the window to our room would be opened and we could hear outside noises. Two sounds that were prominent during that time were train whistles and cheers from nearby Athletic Park where minor league baseball games were played. I'm sure that noise is what led to my passion for baseball as a youth.

Historical events during the life of Wayne Geurink:

• “Lifeboat” by Alfred Hitchcock opens in NY on January 12, 1944;
• In 1952 Dr. Jonas Salk successfully tests his Polio Vaccine. By 1954 it's in widespread use.
• Man landed on the Moon, 4:18PM EDT on July 20, 1969. (Wayne and Judy watched the moon landing and the "... giant leap for mankind," from their room in a Madison, WI, Holiday Inn.);
• Patty Hearst kidnapped by the SLA, Symbionese Liberation Army on February 4, 1974;
• Viking 2 landed on Mars on July 20, 1976.

Wayne Geurink and Judith Ahles had the following children: