16 met at the home of Ann Ireland for our annual evening wine & cheese meeting. Many thanks to outgoing Food & Beverage Czar, Bonnie Magee, for organizing her final event for Bookers before handing the reins to Kim Nalls and we appreciate everyone who provided a wonderful spread to soak up the libations.
To Bonnie from all of us:
Farewell feels like the end of a good book, but the last chapter has yet to be written because all the characters will remain a part of your life. The cards and flowers reflect how much we will miss you and hope your new community has some of the endearing features of our beloved Pinnacle. Happy Trails to you and John…until we meet again!!
Speaking of farewells…we are saying sayonara, adieu, au revoir, ciao, and adios to a fantastic Year 20 of Bookers and look forward to an equally wonderful year of reading with friends when we resume in September. On behalf of the PWC, Activity Director Extraordinaire, Amy Hoff, asked if I would like to continue in my Bookers’ role, to which I thought for a nanosecond and of course, accepted…it’s just such an honor, I love our time together, and appreciate all the support! Our book selection committee already has a slate of books to review for the upcoming year so stay tuned! If you come across a possible Bookers’ book for us to consider for Year 21, please let Jane, Patty or me know. One you might enjoy for extra reading is Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. It was selected by Readers and was highly recommended by several of our “joint” members.
Bookers selected The Story of Beautiful Girl in January 2013. In looking back at the minutes from that meeting we paid tribute to the 20 children and 6 adults killed in the December 14, 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newton, Connecticut – the deadliest mass shooting at an elementary school in the United States. How could we have imagined how the number of incidents has sadly grown in a little over a decade since then?
About the author:
Rachel Simon had intimate knowledge of those with intellectual disabilities as her sister, Beth, only eleven months older, didn’t cry as a baby, didn’t move, or react when a doctor tossed her in the air as she tumbled back into his arms. After undergoing a battery of tests, doctors diagnosed her as retarded. Today there would be a plethora of services, but back then, there was one: institutionalization. Their father, Ben, vowed she would never spend a minute inside that type of facility. He was a child of the Depression, his mother died when he was six, and his father, unable to cope with raising two children on his own, sent his boys to an orphanage. He would later say to his own children, “When you live in an institution, you know at the bottom of your heart that you’re not really loved.” No child of his would experience that.
Rachel detailed her changing relationship with Beth in her 2003 bestselling memoir, Riding the Bus With My Sister, which was made into a Hallmark movie. She learned there was a secret history in our country, one a true story of a young deaf man who in 1945 was discovered wandering the alleys in Illinois. No one understood his signs, so he was sent to an institution where he was given a number, John Doe No. 24, dying there after 50 years of confinement. Her goal in writing The Story of Beautiful Girl was to give him the life he never had, his story never leaving her mind. It began as a writing exercise after she lost her job as a creative writing instructor. She wrote about a knock on the door of the schoolteacher’s house and the story just unspooled from there. When asked if she was concerned about being pigeonholed, she quoted a disability scholar who said all great literature is a disability story. Stories told through the eyes of people with disabilities are not about fixing, healing, curing, overcoming, being superhuman or supernatural…they’re regular people having their own struggles and sometimes, triumphs.
She made it clear that her characters and the people she researched did not have serious mental illness as defined by the DSM-V (an organization that provides clear guidelines in diagnosing mental health and brain-related conditions) but had learning disabilities, speech impediments, deafness, muteness, autism, etc…The institutions depicted in her novel were not for the serious mentally ill, but for people with disabilities considered “different.” These are the ones she feels should be shut down. (Thanks to our astute Ms. Hoff for pointing this out!)
Rachel tours the country speaking about disability issues, hearing countless stories about brothers and sisters who suddenly disappeared, about siblings that people never knew they had. At one conference, a bigwig seated with her on the dais told her later, sobbing, that the first time he saw his sister was when she was in her coffin. Simon stood up and put her arms around the man. “From that day on, I never sat down for a book signing…I just do them standing up.”
Helen Keller’s activism on behalf of the disabled prompted investigative journalist, Geraldo Rivera, to produce an exposé on Staten Island’s Willowbrook State School in 1972. The facility housed 6,200 residents in buildings meant for 4,000 – the overcrowding fostering abuse, dehumanization, and a public health crisis where researchers intentionally used residents without their permission to test the effectiveness of various vaccines. Rivera’s report confirmed what Senator Robert Kennedy discovered after paying an unannounced visit to the facility saying, thousands of residents were living in filth in rooms less comfortably than cages that house animals at the zoo. This was a pivotal development in the history of disability rights, setting important precedents for humane and ethical treatment of people with developmental disabilities living in institutions. A plaque in the Willowbrook community room paints an accurate picture reading, “I would rather live life believing there is a God, rather than die and find out there is not.”
John McCaa, a retired news anchor and award-winning journalist, wrote a column in the Dallas Morning News on Mother’s Day detailing his own mother’s influence on him. He highlights one incident when he and his sister watched as a young neighborhood boy with developmental disabilities passed their home. They made up stories about him because he was “different,” and their mother heard their laughter. Although furious and with tears pooling in her eyes, she calmly said, “You know those special needs kids show more love than you so-called normal children ever will. They love with their whole hearts.” She could not imagine such hurtful words coming from her own children thinking at that moment her efforts to help shape their characters had failed…but her words and reaction profoundly changed John and his sister’s lives.
Synopsis:
The Story of Beautiful Girl is a sweeping love story between a developmentally disabled woman and an African American deaf man who met at the Pennsylvania State School for the Incurable and Feebleminded in 1968. It is a tale of unconditional love and a life-long search to find each other and to locate the child they were forced to leave in the care of a retired schoolteacher. The saga was even more poignant in light of Lynnie and Homan’s disabilities, incarcerated because they were not viewed in what others deemed to be normal and able to function in society, clearly victims of the mindset in the 1960s era.
The novel is a testimonial to overcoming impossible odds, a tutorial of resilience, and how to move forward without abandoning your purpose. “There are two kinds of hope – the kind you can’t do anything about and the kind you can.” This story ends with a beginning. Can you imagine a better day. I gave it a standing ovation!
Our discussion:
Most Bookers read and finished and either loved or liked the selection – the not my cup of tea option was a no show for those in attendance. I failed to point out the meaning of the epigraph at the beginning of the novel. These are short literary devices authors use to set the tone and outline the main theme to readers. Ms. Simon included this message: “Telling our stories is holy work” which refers to the plight of the disabled and a plea for equal treatment. We discussed how two words, Hide Her, changed Martha’s life forever, not calling the authorities when she witnessed the desperation and devotion between the couple and the child. We visited the dedication of teachers but in particular those who teach special needs children and their impact on the well-being of those students. We talked about Kate breaking the rules for Lynnie because she recognized her as a person, not just an “upper division imbecile” and served as her guardian angel protecting and encouraging her artwork throughout the book. The faith-healing scene revealed Homan’s and Sam’s unwillingness to be “fixed” reverting to the numerous “snake-oil” salesmen, smooth talkers who prey on the vulnerable to garner donations to their so-called “ministries.” Julia’s lack of knowledge about her parents was discussed, our group wanting Martha to tell her the truth long before she did – but, IMHO, the storyline would have suffered. Symbolism played a role throughout the novel, starting with the floating feathers interspersed throughout including the inside and back covers – in print copies - representing virtues, hope for a better life and the courage it takes to reach higher. The red feather floated down between Lynnie and Homan during an embrace – red is the color of good fortune. The child’s arm reaching for a black feather on the back cover is supposed to mean grasping mystical wisdom that comes with spiritual evolution (according to the powers that be.) Lighthouses represent a variety of symbols including danger, strength, safety, a guiding light, hope for the lost, and vigilance as a lighthouse is never switched off. Martha’s lighthouse-man mailbox created for her by one of her students was the reason Lynnie chose her house when she, Homan, and the baby were trying to find a place to hide. A disturbing conversation between Kate and ex-guard, Clarence, now sober and atoning for his sins, revealed the horrors of his partner, Smokes, raping Lynnie. Art played a significant role throughout the book, none more significant than in the final chapter when Julia discovered the mosaic, Dreams of Hope, defined as a collaboration of artists, many with abilities, and disabilities creating art that could be appreciated by all people – learning this special piece was in fact created by her parents, Homan Wilson & Lynnie Goldberg. Some of us wanted Julia to meet them in person and the ending felt a little rushed. We also discussed the need for institutions to serve the needs of those “trapped in darkness.” Homes such as the original Buckner Orphans Home (now Buckner International) in Dallas was created in the post-Civil-War era in Texas that was filled with parentless children due to disease or hardship and Tim Tebow’s faith-based organization that caters to the hurting and marginalized people of all ages.
On the business side:
We got a nice thank you from Steve Garwacki for our donation to Hospice in Linsey’s name. He was very grateful that we honored “his sweetheart” in this way.
Hope you all enjoy our summer reads, This Tender Land and The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger. September 10, 2024, will begin our 21st year of meeting and reading. Granted it is quite a way off, but if you can host, please let me know.
It's never too late for a happy-ever-after ending in books and in life!
Happy Reading,
JoDee
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