Fun fact: at the risk of doxxing myself, I can walk today because of the free surgeries I got as an infant from the Shriners. I was born with some pretty fucked up legs, and the Shriners did a lot of work to make them mostly right.
My wife was born in small-town Texas with such a bad eye muscle defect that she would have been legally blind and unable to learn to read. She was walking down the street in the closest bigger city with her family in like 1989, and a doctor that just happened to be developing an experimental surgery (now standard) for that exact condition just happened to walk by and notice. The Shriners facilitated the surgery, and now she's fine.
That's awesome! Super lucky too. Like, what are chances? For me it was pretty standard. My family Dr gave us a referral to them, and they took the case. I don't remember any of the surgeries since they all happened before I was 2.
I don't remember the surgeries but I do remember visiting the hospital in Chicago a few times as a kid. Really cool place, I remember having a lot of fun there, in between getting X-rays.
Well, you were probably under but it's probably for the best you don't remember the surgeries anyway. Haha That's cool you had fun there and they made it a welcoming place too!
Just out of curiosity, what's your view on Shriners/Masons generally now since you've become a fellow pinko?