Living with a disability not only changes one’s life, but it also may change one’s dreams. This often unexpected change may lead one’s life down a path of healing and awareness that can be taught to better help the needs of others.
At age 12, Susan Kocsis realized her life would forever change following a fall during a basket ball game in which both of her knees gave out and were dislocated. The doctors said she had a degenerative disease breaking down bone muscle and the nerves in her body.
She was living in Texas at the time, after traveling overseas growing up in a military family where she says she enjoyed skiing and playing sports.
“It was hard especially being a kid and knowing one day I could do anything and the next what I could do was extremely limited,” said Kocsis.
After her fall she was wheelchair-bound off and on for the next 20 years. From age 12 to 22, she endured one surgery per knee every year.
Over time she got her degree at Texas Woman’s University, the number one school in the nation for occupational therapy. She has a background in nursing and in OT and she says almost everything she has done has to do with helping people learn to live with disabilities just like she had to do. She also worked as a flight attendant until her own disability worsened to the point where she could no longer work.
She had traveled word-wide but says she was always drawn to the east coast. She started moving her way east and it wasn’t until her grandfather’s death that she came to the New Berlin area for an extended amount of time. Her grandmother moved to Texas with her parents and after a short time Susan traveled back to Little Rock.
While in New York, she met Patricia Jenkins, a longtime family friend of her grandmother’s. Susan’s grandmother had been friends with Patty’s mother for over 35 years, yet Patty and Susan had never met. She says the night of her grandfather’s funeral, all she needed was a friend and that’s when she met Patty.
The friendship blossomed and after Susan went back to Arkansas, the two stayed in touch and soon decided Susan should move to South New Berlin.
Patricia was originally from the area and watched over her mother’s friend’s house after she moved to Texas. She had graduated with a degree in theater at Brockport and traveled to Pennsylvania and North Virginia before deciding the South New Berlin area was her true home and her aging mother needed additional care.
Shortly after moving north, both women decided it was time to take a look a their lives and decide what could be changed to benefit them both. They decided to quit smoking and with the money they would have spent, they decided to start going to the YMCA.
Kocsis and Jenkins began attending the YMCA on a regular basis and soon found with water workouts Susan’s time in a wheelchair was lessened. The two began teaching a water course in stretching and transformed the class into an arthritis training class. It was found that teaching the course not only benefited the people taking it, but helped Susan’s disability as well.
It has now been four years since Susan has had to depend on a wheelchair and she says by having the capability to teach others and perform the rehabilitation measures herself, she has started to regenerate the cartilage in her knees, something doctors predicted would never happen.
Jenkins and Kocsis teach their workouts three days a week with an average of 10-15 people per class and have recruited more instructors. They are currently trying to get accredited through the arthritis foundation for their arthritis training.
Susan and Patricia are learning to grow willow and have also lent a helping hand in the safety and protection of animals in need of homes.
Working with local veterinarians and the SPCA, these women provide foster care for up to 10 animals including dogs, cats, ferrets and birds. They have also tackled the job of remodeling the house in which they reside which was originally built by Susan’s grandfather.