Doctors told Tammy Passamonte she would
NEVER WALK AGAIN
STORY BY MICHELLE PAWELSKI PHOTOS BY ANDY GREENMAN
8 ELEVATE • OCTOBER 2021
Positive, Positive, Positive – Executive Housekeeper Tammy Passamonte has the words written on the white board outside her office in the Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn and encourages her staff every day to live by them. She personally knows the power of being positive. The 54-year-old cruises through the hotel overseeing the cleaning of all 205 rooms, logging thousands of steps daily. No one would guess that nearly 30 years ago doctors told Tammy she would never walk again. At age 26, Tammy took a fall down some stairs sending her to the chiropractor to get adjusted. “[The chiropractor] told me I needed to lay flat for three days, but on the second day I couldn’t use my limbs and couldn’t speak; I was slurring. They took me to the hospital and that’s when they figured out what was going on with me.” Doctors diagnosed Tammy with myasthenia gravis, a form of muscular dystrophy, and said she would be wheelchair bound for the rest of her life. Tammy, however, had other plans. “I said ‘watch me.’” She was a single mother with two young kids and was going to prove the doctors wrong—even refusing to use a wheelchair to leave the
hospital. “It was hard, but I was very determined, especially to be able to provide for my children.” Tammy taught herself how to use her muscles again. “I used to teach aerobics when I was younger, so I used the band to try to get strength back in my legs and arms—things I could do sitting on the floor.” With the help of her kids, she went from crutches to a walker and then to a cane. When she turned 30, she was walking on her own. “I really think it is mind over matter,” she said. “If you are always thinking you are sick, you are going to be sick.” While she fought to walk again, and is likely the fastest walker at work, Tammy deals with her disease daily. “I get a burning sensation through my whole body. I get cramps. My muscles get very fatigued, and my legs give out on me a lot, but I’ve learned to go with it. I relax myself if I fall, so I don’t break anything.” She also has flare ups where she again loses use of her legs and her speech. However, she goes back to the bands and works her way back just like she did decades before. For six years, Tammy has worked for the Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn moving her way up to executive housekeeper, a physically demanding position. However, Tammy takes it all in stride. She wakes up early and
