Chants and shouts drew the attention of seasonal visitors in the historical district of Philadelphia last Thursday. About a hundred members of Adapt, a citizen group dedicated to the needs of the disabled, gathered to protest what they consider a sin of Pennsylvania -- ignoring the needs of the disabled. One week ago similar outrages were expressed at a Harrisburg rally. And last month Marion Cohen published a novel that captures the feeling of helplessness that is a part of disability. In the same work she also personalizes the issue for the University community -- the main character of the non-fiction story is former University Physics professor Jeffrey Cohen. Dirty Details focuses on Marion Cohen's life with her husband. She uses the pages to describe the days and the nights of a "well spouse", which is a person in charge of a disabled man or woman. Marion says the family did not always realize life would be so challenging. Jeffrey Cohen fell in love with math at an early age and attended the Newark College of Engineering, where he met his future wife, Marion. He then landed a physics fellowship at Yale and settled into the study of Einstein's theory of relativity. After a few years two milestones occurred in the Cohens' lives -- they became married and Jeffrey suffered two brief medical episodes. First, he experienced a week of blurred vision, which eventually disappeared. Second, Cohen had tingly fingertips for a few weeks. Both health problems went undiagnosed by a doctor at Yale's Student Health. Cohen went on to receive his PhD and took a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale. He said he spent the following ten years "living the good life," attending physics conferences. Cohen then worked for the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton for two years. By 1971, Cohen became a professor with tenure at Penn. He developed the theory of the dragging of inertial frames and quickly won a reputation in his field. "Teaching students at Penn was one of my favorite times of my life," Cohen said. "Unfortunately I wasn't able to do it for as long as I would have liked." In 1977, at the age of 36, Cohen was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. And his life began to change. At first he was able to continue teaching normal classes, but he was forced to use a motorized vehicle to bring himself to work. Eventually, the University hired a student to pass out papers and assist him in class. "Daily activities gradually got harder for me to complete, until I could no longer do what I needed to," Cohen said. "My wife even had to record my grades for me." Eventually Cohen was excused from his teaching duties, but remained active through research. In fact in February of 1984, Cohen finished his prize work. He did what Albert Einstein found impossible -- he proved a part of Einstein's theory of relativity that the scientist left in a hypothetical state. "I had to learn to improve my memory. My mind is now like a notebook -- I can write down my ideas and remember them," Cohen explained. "When I am working on physics there are silly equations all over it." Cohen has continued to work despite his disabilities. Because he is paralyzed from the neck down, he must dictate his ideas to people. This year he is living in Inglis House, a nursing home in West Philadelphia. Within the past few months Cohen has published three physics papers for the University dealing with the rotational elements of Einstein's theory, sometimes working with Harvard professor Miles Klasis. Current University Physics professor Geno Segre is one of Cohen's admirers. "I am delighted that Jeffrey continues to publish such work," Segre said. "It is a profession that what matters is the mind." He said that, despite all of Cohen's physical disabilities, he is definitely still leaving his mark in the field of relativity. In the past few years, Cohen has been named in Who's Who in American Education and has received the Best Invention Award from the Franklin Institute. Throughout his career, Cohen received more than 30 various awards. "It's okay being in Inglis House, but I enjoyed working and living at home much more," Cohen said. "But I realize it is better for me to here because of the burden I constantly put on my family." Marion Cohen's novel explains the entire family's hardships to their full extent. Throughout Dirty Details, Cohen shows how an illness like multiple sclerosis places stress on both children and adults. Cohen's novel begins ten years after her husband was diagnosed with the disease. He had progressed to the point where he could not transfer himself out of a wheelchair. "If I had to say it all in three words, those words would be nights, lifting, and toilet," Cohen writes at the beginning of the novel. "If I were permitted to elaborate, I'd continue, 'By nights I don't mean wiping his brow or lying awake in fear listening to or for his breathing. By lifting I don't mean dragging him by the feet along the floor. And by toilet I don't mean changing the catheters." The novel was published by Temple University Press and can be found in Borders Bookstore. She will be having a reading of Dirty Details on July 10 at 7:30 p.m. in the Borders on 18th and Walnut St. Cohen is also a mathematician and teaches at Temple University. She has written 18 books over the last 20 years. They range from small chat length stories to her newest novel and use everything from poetry to prose. Two other of her favorites are The Sitting-Down Hug and Epsilon Country. The last 15 years of Cohen's life are outlined in Dirty Details -- the loss, anger, fear and desperation that envelopes her family. She said that one positive aspect of dealing with the illness is Penn's sound insurance benefits for her husband. Cohen said she believes that both the state and national governments need to focus more time and money to caring for the disabled. "I am not an expert, but the government needs to invest more money in the people," Cohen said. "The major group that is being ignored is the sick and disabled." Last Friday, a lawsuit was filed in a United States district court by one of Adapt's leaders. The case is called Sanda Bustion vs. Department of Public Welfare of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Bustion is a 32-year-old woman who was hospitalized as a result of multiple sclerosis, the same disease that Cohen has. She is finally being released in two weeks, but will not be able to go home. The state says it can not pay for her attendant care -- she must go on a waiting list that is already 700 people long. While she is waiting, the state will pay an extraordinary amount of money for her to stay in a nursing home. "Sanda just wants to go home -- and all she requires is $10,000 worth of attendant care a year," Bustion's lawyer Ilene Shane said. "Instead they are violating her rights and paying $70,000 to put her somewhere she doesn't want to be." Marion Cohen said that until people begin to recognize the needs of the disabled, cases like Bustion's will continue to take place. "I wrote my book to make people care," Cohen said. "And Jeffrey always had the same mission."
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