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: Marty and Margaret, 1949
After Margaret Chanin earned her master’s degree in public health, she and her new husband moved to Indiana, where Marty had accepted a position teaching chemistry at Evansville College. In August 1948 their first child, Philip, was born.
The first few weeks after the birth of a baby are intense for any parent, but for Margaret Chanin, they were as challenging as anything she had experienced since the accident. Whenever the baby cried, Marty—or somebody—had to be there to pick him up and attend to his needs.
Marty cradled Philip in his arms while he nursed. He changed his diapers, bathed him, rocked him in his arms to console him and nestled him in his crib. In short, he did everything a mother would do except provide the milk.
Of course, they had help. They hired a nanny so Marty could go back to work. For her part, Margaret Chanin became proficient in the kitchen. Even with a new baby in tow, she made sure a homecooked meal was ready and waiting when Marty walked through the front door at the end of his day. How? She clenched her teeth—literally.
She’d nestle an egg from the refrigerator between her chin and her shoulder, lean over, and crack it on the side of the skillet, and scramble it with a spatula gripped between her teeth. If she were baking, she’d sip about a teaspoon’s amount of vanilla into a straw, walk over to the mixing bowl, and release her tongue from the tip of the straw, allowing the vanilla to flow into the bowl.
Marty helped make that happen. He installed modified door handles and floor switches so she could turn the lights on or off with her foot. He retrofitted the kitchen with a special stove and oven, so she could adjust the temperature setting and move pots and pans around with a rudimentary prosthesis he made for her, and he installed spring-action latches on the drawers so she could open them with her big toe.
In 1956, Gordon “Bish” Thompson, a columnist for the Evansville Press, honored the Chanins for the courage they displayed during their years in Evansville. “We are the richer for it,” he wrote. But could we, he asked his readers, respond as courageously if confronted with the same set of circumstances? “The experts in these matters say we could. But I don’t know.”