by Herbie J Pilato
Actress Eileen Grubba—physically disabled since childhood, and an advocate for Performers with Disability (PWD)—has always beaten the odds.
A few months before her 5th birthday, Grubba was paralyzed from the waist down. Doctors didn’t think she would make it, and when she did, they predicted she would never walk again. But she prevailed again.
Vince Staskel, also an advocate for PWD, was born with cerebral palsy and is a friend and colleague to Grubba. He says Grubba “forced herself to walk through sheer will, and it took a lifetime of effort to keep her walking.”