In times of uncertainty and pessimism, like we’re going through now, everyone needs to meet someone like JoAnne Brooks (not that there are many like her!) Despite the fact that polio robbed her of the use of her arms and right hand at a very early age, Brooks has always had a “can-do” attitude and a restless energy that helped her overcome numerous obstacles and accomplish many impressive feats without a trace of self-consciousness or self-pity. Her latest venture, making very attractive custom jewelry, would be impressive enough if she had full use of her arms and hands. The amazing truth is that JoAnne Brooks puts her jewelry together with her feet and the fingers of her left hand!

JoAnne was just four years old, the oldest of three girls in her Dallas-area family, when she became one of the last Americans (in 1962) to be afflicted with polio. She remembers a stinging and tingling sensation traveling from her right hand up her arm and then down her left arm, as though her arms and gone to sleep. Years of hospital visits, tests, doctors and traveling as far as California for answers, she ended up at Texas Institute for Rehabilitation and Research (now known as TIRR Memorial Hermann), a pioneering rehabilitation center in Houston, where she remembers, “I was the healthiest person there, and I thought it was great being away from home and not to have to go to regular school.”

Her parents took the situation much more seriously. “It was much more devastating to my parents than to me. They felt guilty, helpless and frustrated, which caused them to become very over-protective.” My sisters were affected too, because all the attention was focused on me.”

JoAnne wasn’t the kind to quietly accept her fate. “I was always breaking the rules. I thought I could do anything.” She recalls attending skating parties (“I HAD to go!”) where her mother would run around behind her, holding on so JoAnne wouldn’t fall. When she was just 13, she got a job as usherette at the local movie theater. She then moved up to concession, then to ticket sales. By the time she was fifteen, she was eager to drive, and signed up for a drivers ed class at school.

That caused a problem with her father. “He never thought, in his wildest dreams, that I’d ever be able to drive,” JoAnne recalls. But the teacher said, “Just let her take the class.” She did, and then her driving was “kind of put on hold”. Until , by chance she made contact with a lady who had brought her car in for repair in Mesquite, who had a car equipped with a no-arms steering system. The lady said it was a “one-time thing,” specially designed by a friend, but there was a chance that he’d be willing to do it again.

JoAnne called the man, a mechanical engineer named Andy Anrig in Chico CA, who worked for the Chico Nut Company in California. Anrig was a natural tinkerer who designed and maintained all the equipment for the factories to shell and process almonds, walnuts, pecans and other nuts. Although they had never met, Anrig agreed to adapt a vehicle. After deciding on a Buick Skylark for JoAnne, her dad began trying to work out the logistics of getting a car to California. Anrig told him, “Don’t worry; just send me a check. I’ll buy it for you”

It was almost six months before the car was ready, and JoAnne and her father flew out to California. Anrig met them, late at night, at the airport. “Are you ready to drive your car, JoAnne?” he asked. “I had my permit,” she recalls. “I was so excited I couldn’t stand it.”

Anrig showed her how to use the knee-yoke for steering, and JoAnne practiced for a few minutes on the airstrip before heading off for the hotel, with her dad “freaking out” in the back seat. They stayed for a couple of days, testing and making adjustments to the system, before heading back to Dallas in the snow.

“That car was my freedom!” JoAnne exclaims. “It was such a huge thing. So many people would say ‘You can’t do that,’ but Andy just knew that I could. He was like an angel to me.”

JoAnne attended Stephen F. Austin University, and began working with the juvenile probation system (through VISTA) even before graduation. She was married in 1980, and raised a daughter (Brittany, now 25) and a son (Austin, now 20). She went on to earn a Master’s degree in education and guidance at Lamar University, then took a job with adult probation, winding up her 33-year career as supervisor of the federal probation office in Laredo, where she became fluent in Spanish.

“Once the kids left,” JoAnne recalls, “I watched TV for about a year.”

Looking for something a little more productive, and after seeing a purse her younger sister had made, she began making cigar-box purses; some were sold at a store in Laredo. Later, she began painting silk scarves. In 2001, her work (purses and scarves) was accepted into the Texas Arts and Crafts Festival in Kerrville. Her mom, an established artist in Dallas, was making jewelry, and JoAnne thought, “I can do that!” She was right.

With a little practice, JoAnne became proficient at stringing beads by supporting the fingers of her left hand between her toes; she lifts tools and holds her work with her feet while using her fingers for precise motions. Her natural eye for beauty enables her to choose and arrange the beads to a striking effect, and her jewelry is in great demand at local shops and craft shows. She reserves a booth at Market Days in Kerrville, has a number of retail stores and galleries that carry her work, and recently showed her work at the apparel and accessories market in Dallas, where hundreds of retailers shop for unique new merchandise. Her earrings, bracelets and necklaces range in price from $35 to $400.

“I’ve never thought of myself as disabled,” she says. “I’ve always felt that I was supposed to do something big with my life. I have a really unique story to tell.” She’d like to tell it on the Oprah Winfrey show, so if any readers happen to know Oprah . . .

Even if she doesn’t make it big on television, JoAnne believes that God has a plan for her life. “Wherever I am,” she says, “That’s where I’m supposed to be.” She thinks perhaps she could teach kids, or do motivational speaking (“for kids, or even more so, for parents,” she says. “My mother still won’t talk about my illness.”)

Just over a year ago, JoAnne and her husband, Greg (a gas well service technician and cowboy, who rides and ropes in his spare time) bought a place in Utopia, where they hope to eventually retire. Already, JoAnne has a multitude of friends (and customers) in her charming new hometown; an impressive testament to her outgoing, friendly personality. We think she’d be a great guest for Oprah!