By Gary Nager
Long-time readers of this publication know that I have only one sibling — my sister Bonnie — who lives in Villanova, PA. Because it’s probably been a dozen years since I wrote anything about her in these pages, you may not know that Bonnie won her first of about 30 amateur, all-natural (drug-free) bodybuilding titles in her 30s and 40s, the last about a dozen years ago.
My sister had to give up competing as a bodybuilder because she had a lower back injury suffered while surfing as a teenager in our native Long Island, NY, that never healed properly. All of the bodybuilding she did after the birth of her sons Jason, 28, and Eric, 23, built so much muscle around that old injury site that my sister probably went a decade or more longer than anyone else might’ve before having her first of now 16 major back and neck surgeries.
Many of those procedures have been fusion surgeries, where unstable vertebrae are fused together in order to stabilize them. Those fusion surgeries have included the surgical implantation of 36 separate pieces of metal in her back and 30 in her neck (photo).
Well, about two weeks before we went to press with this issue, Bonnie had what I hope will be her last surgery, as all of the metal in her neck has now been successfully removed.
But, while her X-rays may now look a little less like Wolverine of X-Men fame, my sister is still my favorite superhero. Here’s hoping she finally has Wolvie’s healing power, too!
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