As a child, I distinctly remember noticing a scar on my mother’s arm, high up near her shoulder. It looked like a ring of small indents around a larger one. I’m not sure why it caught my attention, but it did, though I eventually forgot about it over time.

Years later, I saw a similar scar on an elderly woman while helping her off a train. Curious, I called my mom, who explained that the scar was from the smallpox vaccine. Smallpox, a deadly disease, was eradicated in the U.S. by the 1950s thanks to widespread vaccination. The vaccine was administered with a two-pronged needle, leaving a distinctive scar as part of the healing process. My mom’s scar, like many from her generation, is a mark of survival.