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by Linda
Braun
She is a tall, graceful woman, whose presence
bespeaks both the wisdom of life’s
experiences and the openness and ease of a child.
True to the Native American and Hispanic chords
in her family history she has a long ponytail of
thick, dark hair reaching to her waist, wrapped
in colorful bands of cloth. Her voice is joyous
and musical as it relays a most imaginative
selection of words; it's an invitation to
perceive from a new seat at life’s buffet
table. Smiles and laughter punctuate the
interaction as new possibilities arise.
Felicia Noelle Trujillo was born with the tiny
imprint of a spinal defect called spina bifida
occulta. Her doctor felt her poor posture was not
due to the spina bifida, but to an early
childhood with frequent bronchitis and asthma.
Years later her own practice was to discover the
accuracy of how even colds can contribute to
changes in posture.
When Felicia was 5 years old, her mother taught
her yoga, hoping it would provide improvement. It
didn't. Four years later, her mother discovered
Jay Scherer, a Santa Fe naturopath. After a brief
time as Scherer's patient Felicia told him that
she wanted to do this work when she grew up.
Scherer began to train her as a massage therapist
and naturopath. Felicia recounts, "I realize
now how much Jay's early influence inspired me to
view my work as being a form of service and
spiritual practice. He also encouraged a
detective approach to uncovering the source of
illness; to address causes rather than
symptoms."
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Felicia remembers that every fall in Santa Fe
meant severe asthma. She was 12 years old and
weighed only 60 pounds. "I had been sitting
up for 36 hours; drawing each breath was a
mammoth task," she said. "My chest was
like a cage, and each breath was trapped inside.
My body was so painful that I suddenly felt an
'other' self that was painless and free and
floated somewhere above my head looking down at
myself as I sat perfectly still, laboring for the
next breath.
"I woke up in the hospital, found that I
could breathe more easily and fell back asleep.
The next day I began to hear the screams. I rang
for a nurse but no one came. It was an agonizing,
pleading scream for help that continued for
hours. Finally a nurse told me, 'That's just an
old lady with a broken back. Her family brought
her here to die 'cause she's too old to fix her
back. There's nothing we can do for her.'
"The screams woke me up again late at night.
I remember my bare feet on the linoleum as I
stole down the long halls, following the sound. I
was frightened by just the sight of such an old
woman. There were tears rolling down her wrinkled
cheeks. I crept up to her side and murmured
hello. Her hand shot out clutching my arm and I
realized that she was blind. I was terrified. She
pleaded with me in Spanish that I couldn't
understand. I rang for nurses but no one came.
Eventually two nurses aides passed by and I
convinced them to enter the room.
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Felicia,
as a child, explored novel movements.
This was her favorite position for
reading.
Photo
by Clare Turlay Newberry
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" 'Oh, she just wants a bed pan,' was their
translation. To my horror, the two aides yanked
the old woman's legs up in the air and forced the
bed pan under her, ignoring her piercing screams.
As if I were invisible, they scrabbled through
the woman's things, retrieving some money and
candies and left laughing.
"I stood there still pinned by her desperate
grasp, with tears rolling down my cheeks. I swore
that somehow this horrific treatment must be
stopped."
Scherer, Felicia believes, had eradicated her
asthma by age 14, and she returned to the very
same hospital, this time as a volunteer offering
massage to patients.
(Continued on page 2) |
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