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 1943

Margaret began to come back to herself around the third week in July 1941. Although she was still in pain, she no longer screamed out for another shot of morphine. Drifting in and out of consciousness in her sunny hospital room, filled with bouquets of flowers, she was in a dreamlike state.

Then she glanced down at herself. Her chest was covered with a towel, as if a dentist had draped it just before extracting a tooth. At that moment, a gust of wind blew through the open hospital window and uncovered her. She stared in horror. She had no arms!

The surgeons had to amputate both arms to stop the bleeding after they were severely burned in a boating accident. The operation saved her life. But what kind of life could she have without arms? At first, Margaret prayed to die. She pleaded for a miracle, that she would be whole again. Her requests would be granted, but not immediately, and not in a physical way.

Years later, she recalled, “When I would be dissolved in tears and grief, and when I’d quit crying

… my mother would say, ‘If God spared your life when 20 doctors said you couldn’t live, there has to be a reason for it. You may be old and gray before you know it, and you may not know it until you get to Heaven, but it’s your responsibility to keep looking, keep searching for it.’”

Eventually, Margaret accepted that her old life was indeed dead. It wasn’t coming back. She was also able to see that a miracle had occurred. When the mast of the sailboat struck a powerline that sagged across Houston’s San Jacinto River, 12,000 volts of electricity passed through her body. Yet she survived.

Now all she had to do now was to wake up to courage.