Joyce Moyer Hostetter

The sequel to BLUE will be published in April '09. Part of it takes place at Georgia Warm Springs Foundation in GA. And the cover includes a vintage photo from the campus pool.

Here's one of Ann Fay's moments in the therapeutic water there.

The first thing she did was start moving my legs to loosen
them up. She was so gentle it reminded me of what the attendant
had said: “Just relax and let us take care of you.”

And I have to tell you it felt so good after all the bearing up
I’d done with my family, and going back to school, and even
working for Ruth Whitener. I couldn’t hold on anymore. The
tears started slipping out of the corners of my eyes.

Janice was turning my leg in a circular motion, but she
stopped. “Did that hurt?”

I shook my head. I kept my eyes shut, but they still
leaked and the tears ran off my face and into the Warm
Springs pool. It seemed to me like that clean sparkly pool
was a good place to let go of my sorrows.

Janice explained everything she was doing to me. She
bent my legs in different positions. She rotated them. She
rested my feet on her shoulders and massaged my leg muscles
with her fingers. I don’t think she missed a single muscle
from my belly to my toes. And she worked on my left
arm because it had been affected by polio too. “You still
have some weakness in your shoulder,” she said.

I think I must have cried the whole time. Not out loud
or anything, just to myself. It was like Janice was working
loose all the sadness and worry in me. I hoped it would
go down the drain without clogging the pool filters.