Sometimes the best way to get through tough times is a good distraction. When schoolteacher Eleanor Abbott was being treated in a hospital polio ward filled with children, she invented the board game Candy Land to help them pass the time.
Most of Abbott’s life is shrouded in mystery. She worked throughout her life as a teacher. In the late 1940s, Abbott retired when the polio epidemic struck. Polio, short for poliomyelitis, affects the nervous system, and can lead to difficulty breathing, paralysis, or even death in severe cases.
