The Broken Veranda

Joanne E. Beattie wrote The Broken Veranda as a fictionalized account of her older sister’s experience with polio. Although Joanne wasn’t alive when her sister contracted the disease, she often heard older members of her family talk about the challenging and heartbreaking experience. Over the years, she received newspaper clippings about Irene’s story, and continued to research polio. Through her love of books, she knew this was a story worth telling. Although many of the family members who lived through this time have passed away, she was able to recreate and fictionalize this era, with the hope that the younger generations could read about the hardships endured in the 1940s. She lives in Regina, Saskatchewan, with her husband and her cat.