After contracting polio as a child, Southfield woman thrives through every stage of life

The lifetime of Bożena Lamparska began with an impediment, however she has spent every chapter since she pushed forward, making a life within the area of artwork, mind and resilience.

Lamparska, born in January 1955, only some months earlier than the polio vaccine was launched, closed the virus in 10 months previous.

“No person has ever found how I obtained it,” she says. By the age of 14 she had already undergone a dozen operations. However as a substitute of getting limitations outlined, Bozena discovered an expression by way of music – a suggestion of her physician to maintain her palms energetic that might turn into a lifelong ardour.

Lamparska then gave Utilized Music at St. Lawrence College, specialised in voice, harpsichord and piano. “I would not be a Vladimir Horowitz,” she mentioned, “however I performed and I taught.”

Her musicality flourished regardless of bodily limitations, and he or she was a revered artist, typically known as as a last-minute soloist due to her flawless abilities within the area of sight.

Through the years, Lamparska wore {many professional} hats – musician, educator, administrative assistant, researcher, psychological well being adviser and IT specialist.

“I used to be simply bored,” she mentioned. After going to pc work within the nineties, she led the IT division in a big non -profit in Philadelphia and have become an authorized Microsoft engineer. She even helped shield knowledge throughout the Y2K concern.

The lifetime of Lamparska introduced her from her native Rhode Island to Baltimore, Upstate New York, Philadelphia, the jap coast of Maryland and at last to Michigan, the place she now lives in Brookdale Southfield. Though mobility has turn into tougher, she now makes use of a motorized wheelchair as a consequence of a posh mixture of post-polio problems, growing old and Parkinson’s her feeling stays clear.

“I attempt to really feel helpful,” she mentioned. “Whether or not it’s somebody with pc issues or sing along with medieval and Renaissance recordings, I nonetheless discover methods to remain concerned.”

Though she now not acts as she as soon as did, music stays central in her life. She listens to choir works, sings along with the scores and surrounds herself with the compositions that she loves essentially the most. “Music was actually vital to me,” she mentioned. “And I did not fairly understand how vital I may now not play.”

Her recommendation for others who’re confronted with bodily or emotional limitations is straightforward: “Keep ahead, no matter limitations. Do your finest.”

And that’s precisely what she did.