Elizabeth Kosmala - Personal

Personal

Kosmala was born on 8 July 1942 in Adelaide. Her father was a lawyer. She was born with club feet, which were straightened out with plasters and bandages. She was initially classified as having spina bifida, but at the age of 50, she discovered that her paraplegia was due to birth-related complications; she was delivered in a long operation using forceps by a cardiologist. She is paralysed from the waist down, and her spine is of normal thickness down to the middle of her back, thins out to the size of a pencil, then comes out normally again. She learnt to stand at the age of seven, and her parents made her walk from 20 to 30 minutes a day from then until she was seventeen years old. She has learnt to walk in full-length callipers, surgical boots, and with two walking sticks. She attended Loreto Convent School, where she was not allowed to do physical activities.

She trained to be a secretary at the rehabilitation unit of the Royal Adelaide Hospital, and received her first job as a secretary at the Adelaide Botanic Garden at the age of 20. She was there for eleven years, then transferred to the heart and lung investigative unit of the Royal Adelaide Hospital. She then worked part-time after having children. She also worked as a public relations officer for the spina bifida association for twelve years before she retired. She met her husband, Stan Kosmala, in the 1970s through wheelchair sport. He won a gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Paralympics in lawn bowls. They have two sons and two grandchildren.

She played a part in the introduction of disabled parking permits in South Australia, after accumulating and refusing to pay many parking fines for parking too long in a fifteen-minute parking area. She won a court case against the City of Adelaide on the issue, but was asked to pay her court costs, which were covered by an anonymous donor.