Polio paralyzed Martha Mason from the neck down in 1948, and she spent the rest of her days inside an iron lung, an 800-pound airtight tube that breathed for her. But Mason, who died Monday at 71, made people forget about her fragile condition as she talked passionately about politics and literature, theology and vegetable gardens.

She even wrote a book.

Uncomplaining and good-humored, she usually sent folks away feeling better than when they came.

(Continue reading, and see the photo, in the New York Times)