In the days before he died in August, my father-in-law was most animated when recalling his childhood years on a sheep and wheat farm in the NSW Riverina region.

Conscious that death could be approaching, he was keen for us to record snippets of his 77 years, something to leave behind for his grandchildren, a doorway into a way of life that no longer exists. He recounted stories from the days when he rode horses to school and chased rabbits with his brothers, before becoming a shearer and meeting their grandmother at a country dance when they were teenagers.

US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s record of making debunked claims about vaccines was well documented before he was appointed to the position.Credit: AP

Although I already knew about the heartbreaking tragedy that scarred his early years, I couldn’t help but ask again about the woman who disappeared before he could walk, the mother he never knew. He could sketch only the barest of outlines, could not colour in the details to bring to life the woman who brought him into this world.

Just 10 months after he was born in 1948, his mother succumbed to polio at the age of 33, leaving behind four young sons. Eight years later, Australia began rolling out polio vaccinations, and was declared free of the disease in 2000.

Eradicating polio has been a great medical success story of modern times, with the disease now only considered endemic in two countries – Afghanistan and Pakistan.

A couple of weeks........

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