Author Biography
Mary McManus, MSW grew up in Westchester, NY and contracted paralytic polio in 1959 at the age of 5, during one of the last polio epidemics in the United States. Mary survived 9 years of unrelenting sexual, physical and emotional trauma at the hands of family members culminating with the suicide of her father in 1971 as she prepared to enter her freshman year at Boston University. Mary was at the height of her 20 year award winning career as a social worker at the VA when she was diagnosed with post polio syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease. Mary did not take the diagnosis of post polio syndrome sitting down. She embarked on a seven year healing odyssey that began with a leap of faith as she left her social work career to heal her life and to follow her new found passion as a poet and writer. Mary is a 2009 Boston Marathon finisher, blogger, the author of 5 books of inspirational poetry and her memoir, Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing, Hope and Possibility. Mary holds a BS in Public Relations from Boston University, an MSW from Boston College and many fond memories of her VA social work career in her heart. She lives in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts with her husband of 36 years and their four foot companion, Jamie.
