DUNCANSVILLE – Tom Jandora has worked for the Duncansville-based trucking company R.J. Glass Inc. for 45 years.

That in itself is an accomplishment, but even more so considering Jandora, a dispatcher and manager, has done so as a paraplegic.

But he was influenced to pick doing over feeling sorry for himself at a young age.

When Jandora, 64, was about to turn 10 years old in February 1960, he was stricken with polio, which according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease that can invade the brain and spinal cord and cause paralysis.

“Every time I laid down at night, I felt like I had a knife sticking in my chest,” he said on a recent snowy afternoon in his Duncansville home, once his family homestead, with his wife, Mary, sitting beside him.

“During the day I could sleep a little bit, so every night I tried to go to bed. For a whole week, I did that. It was getting close to Valentine’s Day … I got valentines all ready for school. Sunday night, I went to bed. I slept all night. Monday morning, I woke up and … I made about four steps, my legs just went out. That was it.”

Another child at the Catholic school he attended in Newry had died from the disease about a year before, and when Jandora’s parents, Kathryn and Andrew, told him he had polio, he saw it as a death sentence, he said.

Jandora, who was one of six children, spent six months in Altoona’s Mercy Hospital where he “was in isolation for a month. I wasn’t allowed to see my parents, and anybody that came in was all garbed up.”

After that, he went home for about a week and was then sent to the Home for Crippled Children in Pittsburgh where he spent another six months, he said.

Jandora suffered burn marks from the heat packs applied to help loosen up his stiffened body, but thankfully never had to endure a tank respirator, better known as the iron lung, like others with polio.

“It seemed so barbaric back then, but that’s just how they had to do it,” he said.

Once home, Jandora, who spent most of his life on crutches and in braces, adjusted to his new life.

“My parents wanted me to be just like everybody else as much as possible,” he said. “They hired a big, husky bus driver, and I’d get out to the bus stop, he’d come out, lift me up on the bus, make sure I was seated, and I’d go to school. And he did the same thing (to get) me back off the bus.”

Although his family babied him when he first got home, one morning his dad got him back to work on the family farm. He made a special stool for him to sit on and brought him the more tame cows for milking.

He remembered thinking, “‘You know, why’s Dad doing this?’ … It was tougher for him to do it.”

His dad got him on the farm tractor to work the fields and was nearby, if needed. He continued working with his son until he was killed in a coal mining accident in 1962.

After his dad passed away, the Knights of Columbus bought each of the kids in his family a Christmas gift, and he had asked for a guitar.

He took lessons, and in 1963, he started his own rock band. He played in different bands over the years until 1976.

The hunter and fisherman wrestled in high school, and he graduated Hollidaysburg Area High School in 1969.

He was planning to go to disc jockey school when he was recommended for a job helping the owner’s son in maintenance at R.J. Glass Inc., located just down the street from his family’s homestead. Jandora’s mom was friends with R.J. Glass.

He started out making $1.60 an hour and was actually making more playing music at the time, he said.

When it came time to head off to disc jockey school, Jandora put it off as his relationship with Glass, who treated him like a son, grew.

The family relationship has continued with Scott Glass, a third-generation owner, who said Jandora worked his way up in the business and is a “does-it-all” employee.

Jandora and Mary, have been married for 38 years and have two adult children, Tom II and Colleen; and six grandchildren: Caleb, 12; Luke, 9; Riley, 8; Isaac, 6; Amina, 3; and Andrew, 3.

After several surgeries on his shoulders, Jandora began using a wheelchair in 2001.

The decision took some time for the self-proclaimed “bull-headed” Jandora, he said. “I figured if they put me in a wheelchair then I was giving up.”

Jandora, who has a “dirt” wheelchair he uses for work, still loves his job.

“He’s just very dedicated. Working for R.J.’s always comes first; that’s always important to him. I mean, he could have chosen the lower road and not done anything with his life. We’ve done it all. He’s helped paint. We hung drywall,” Mary said of their home. “We just do things a little differently.”

Jandora recently celebrated his 45 years with the company with a party at the Creekside Inn Restaurant, East Freedom. The gesture touched Jandora, who says he is soft-hearted.

Glass is hoping Jandora “works another 20 years,” he said.

“The most dedicated employee I think we ever had,” Glass said. “He goes above and beyond. He works long hours. He’s helped us achieve a lot of the goals that we’ve made here because of all his efforts, and we’re grateful. He’s pretty much like family.”

Mirror Staff Writer Amanda Gabeletto is at 949-7030. Follow her on Facebook (Amanda Gabeletto Altoona Mirror), Twitter (@AmandaGabeletto), and on her Mirror blog “House of Gab” at www.altoonamirror. com.