Robert Mauro (pictured) died August 21, 2010, according to his family. The Robert Mauro Memorial Mass will be September 25, 10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. at St. Bernard's Roman Catholic Church, 3100 Hempstead Turnpike, Levittown, N.Y.His Facebook page has become a memorial site for him. His brother, Frank, reports there that Mauro developed walking pneumonia, which turned into septic shock and led to a heart attack. Mauro was born Sept. 25, 1946. He was a 1976 graduate of Hofstra University with degrees in psychology and sociology.
His favorite quote was "Disability doesn't mean inability." Amen!
He wrote this bio of himself for Amazon: "Robert Mauro contracted polio at five in 1951. He uses a vent to breathe and a motorized wheelchair for mobility. Educated in public and parochial schools, on home instructions and at Hofstra University, he's an artist and writer. He is the author of a number of books and numerous published plays, short stories and poems. Some of his books are The Whacking of Maddy Exotica: A Sci-Fi Satire; The Night-Light Zone: Short Stories To Read With The Night Light On; Finding Love And Intimacy; How-To Live Longer With A Disability; Two-Character Plays for Student Actors; On Stage; The Landscape of My Disability; Hollywood Homicide: A Harry Apple Mystery; When I Was Seventeen: A Novel About Love, Friendship And Becoming An Adult; A Child Of The Holocaust: A Non-Survivor’s Story Of Survival; and Sucking Air, Doing Wheelies: Memoirs Of A Fifties Polio Survivor, which is his autobiography."
Here's the Amazon description of his 2005 book, Sucking Air, Doing Wheelies: Memoirs of a Fifties Polio Survivor: "The unforgettable autobiography of Robert Mauro, a polio survivor from the 1950s. Published on the 50th anniversary of the Salk vaccine, here’s the story of a baby boomer, who, despite severe polio, a motorized wheelchair and a respirator, goes on to become an artist, the author of six books and a playwright praised by Helen Hayes, the First Lady of the American Theater. Mauro endured painful rehabilitation and several surgeries. And during the tumultuous sixties, while in college, he began to suffer from post-polio syndrome, severe depression, and was put on a respirator. Nevertheless, he overcomes depression, goes on to have his books, plays, poems and short stories published, and finds the love of his life. This remarkable autobiography is about courage, perseverance and never letting one’s disability disable you. It’s a book that should be read by everyone who wants to see what the human spirit is capable of."
