This is an excerpt from the book, Mother of Courage an Inspirational true story about Margaret Chanin, who despite the loss of both arms earned her dental degree, married and raised two boys, taught preventive dentistry for more than 20 years, and became nationally known for her advocacy of people with disabilities. Her journey through physical challenges and adversity is a testament to the power of determination, resilience, and faith
Photo: Margaret in her wedding dress, 1946
In the fall of 1944, Margaret was admitted to University of Michigan, which had one of the nation’s first programs in dental public health. A fellow student carbon-copied his notes from their lectures. Her mother, who had moved to Ann Arbor to help her, typed Margaret’s papers from her dictation. With their help, Margaret was able to complete her course work in epidemiology, child and public health dentistry, economics, statistics, nutrition, and community health organization.
Margaret was dating a graduate student in bacteriology from Egypt named Salah Taha when she met her future husband, Martin “Marty” Chanin. When Taha completed his degree and returned home, Marty was determined to take his place.
A rather homely graduate student in pharmaceutical chemistry, Marty would later admit that he had fallen for this lovely, armless young woman even before he met her—after seeing her picture in the newspaper. He became even more smitten when he saw her on campus. Marty yearned to take care of someone with special needs.
After their first date, “he just absolutely made himself indispensable,” Margaret recalled years later. “If it was raining, he’d be there with an umbrella … He was underfoot every time I turned around.” Eventually Marty worked up the courage to ask Margaret to marry him. Her answer, at least at first, was a strenuous “No.”
Margaret couldn’t visualize “any man in his right mind” wanting to marry her. Yet her mother had been away from her husband and her home in Arkansas for much of the past three years. Who would take care of her if Mother could not?
Margaret also appreciated Marty’s attentiveness, his little acts of kindness. When they were out together at a restaurant, he became the arms she didn’t have, removing her coat, making sure she was seated comfortably, bringing food to her lips—as if that were the most natural thing to do on earth, and anticipating her need for a sip of water even before she knew she was thirsty. He treated her like she was the only other person in the room, like a queen. He was truly devoted to her. And so, in early 1946, Margaret’s oft-repeated “no’s,” became a “yes.”
They married in June. Days later Margaret Chanin received a handwritten letter from the School of Agriculture in Giza, Egypt. “Here is a word that I would like to whisper to Martin’s ears,” Dr. Salah Taha wrote. “Listen, Martin! You have selected a real pearl. Everybody will envy you for it, so keep it shining and protect it with everything you own.”