When Paula Leone Heulings was 19 years old, she was told she’d never walk again.
An infection caused by a mosquito bite left her comatose and then paralyzed from the waist down.
In her book, “No Pity Party for Me: The Girl Who Refused to Fail,” the Millville resident details how she overcame that grim diagnosis through sheer determination and will.
“I’m no victim,” Heulings writes in the book. “I will walk again. My life will be full. Failure is not an option!”
With collaborator Kathryn Ross, she peels through the layers of memory and recaptures the battle of her life waged decades earlier.
Her story inspires resilience to overcome obstacles in life through faith and action.
Today, Paula walks in the fulfilled dreams of a family legacy and satisfying career in Southern New Jersey.
The following is an excerpt from her book, which can be found on Amazon at:
https://www.amazon.com/No-Pity-Party-Me-Refused/dp/1736008013
“Quit fooling around,” Alan murmured as he rolled over with a fluff to his pillow. “You getting David?”
Sprawled on the floor on the side of the bed and barely awake, the stabbing headache that had hounded me for the past two days exploded between my ears.
“Mommy! Mommy!” Our two-year-old, David, called out to me from his crib.
I tried. I really tried to move my legs. To will my muscles to flex and push me to stand. To walk. To no avail.
Tears welled in my eyes out of frustration. Fear clutched my throat and choked me in sudden panic. My breath shortened in little gasps of dread, confusion, and staccato shrieks building to a blood curdling scream. The knife-sharp head pain intensified.
Alan sat erect, shocked wide awake. “What! Paula?
What? Are you crying?” He stumbled out of bed and around to the other side then looked at me laying there, helpless in a heap.
Something was very wrong.
“I can’t get up! My legs won’t work! Come to me! Do something!”