My Sister Fay
By Gail Wasserman
Fay Rose Cornman was the second to youngest child of Isadore and Sarah. She was born February 28, 1930 with a severe heart problem, known as a "blue baby". Because of her heart condition, she was blue in coloring and was very limited in even the simpliest of physical activities. She couldn’t attend the neighborhood school because she couldn’t walk the steps to the classrooms which were on the 2nd and 3rd floors. So she was unable to attend Mc Donough 10 with her sisters. At one point a class was organized in the city which gave her the opportunity to go to school. It was on the other side of town and a stationwagon came each day and brought her to and from Lafayette School on Carrollton Avenue. Her classroom was on the ground floor and she had classmates with different disabilities. Unfortunately, the mix of classmates was both physically and mentally challenged students at all levels. It was far from ideal, but in those early years it was a unique program. The family was very happy for her to have even this limited opportunity.
Fay was a very special person. She was everybody’s favorite sister. She would hide her physical and emotional pain and always manage to be warm, witty, bright and sensitive…she had her own very special charm. She couldn’t play the physical games like jump rope and hop-scotch like the other kids…but she could beat any one of us at Monopoly. She knew how to appreciate what she could do and never complained about her limitations.
Though she only lived to celebrate her 14th birthday, she had a very meaningful life. She made significant contributions to medical research as she was continuously studied for her heart problems (at Lousiana State University Medical School). Had she lived a couple of years longer, she could have had a "normal" life, as heart surgery was soon to become routine. But the success of the operations came a little too late for Fay.
Unfortunately, she was born two years too soon.
Born: 2/28/30 Died: 3/5/44