Mattie Rufus Wright, 1922-2007

Rest in Peace, Mattie Rufus Wright.

I should mention that in addition to having a passion for writing, Mattie loved Louis L'Amour westerns and Kung Fu movies. I'll never forget the night we watched 5 Deadly Venoms together in her house on S. Edsel Street in Detroit. If you have referenced The Matrix, Kill Bill or Pulp Fiction in your scholarship/teaching...you might want to rent the Venoms. It's a classic, like Mattie.

Mattie, at age 84, had self-published a book of her poetry on Amazon.com, was looking for an illustrator for an African American folktale called "Big Belly John," and was searching for an editor for a novel based in the post-Emancipation South.

But the ways in which our identities are written are never straightforward, as evidenced by the article (below) that I found after googling Mattie's name.

I've yet to think through an analysis of this press release as it relates (or not) to my own understanding of who my Grandmother is/was.

But, I do have to say that the author's characterization of George Washington Carver is exactly the stereotypical version of Carver's contribution that my Grandad Joseph would rail against as he talked of Carver's contribution to agricultural science. Grandad took classes from Carver at Tuskegee University, during which time he witnessed first hand Carver's genius and the ways that he taught black farmers about crop rotation techniques. Eventually, as the black farmers' crops grew more and more successful, white farmers also came to Carver for assistance. It was this story that Grandad came back to again and again as his dementia worsened.

Anyway, when I get back home, I'll include Grandma's poem, "what makes a mother," as yet another (re)presentation of who she is/was....

Eastern Michigan University model respite care project finds unique, yet simple, ways to help others in community

YPSILANTI – It’s as if Mattie and Joseph Wright of Canton had won a contest.
People came weekly with bags of their favorite foods and made a hot, three-course meal. The visitors also set the table, brought taped music and cleaned up after the meal. But Joseph, 83, who has dementia, and his 79-year-old wife, Mattie, didn’t win any contest. The service was provided by Eastern Michigan University students as part of the University’s Respite Care Project.

Eastern Michigan University students Stacy Wallace, of Ann Arbor, and Yi-Min Cheng, of Ypsilanti are just two of more than 90 students in the program who visit people in the community who need assistance. The program, which is considered a model for other universities in the state, began with a grant in 2001. And while the grant was recently terminated due to the state’s budget crunch, Anne Robinson, director of EMU’s Alzheimer’s Education Program, said the project would move forward. “The project will continue in a modified way,” said Robinson. “EMU has a strong commitment to service families. There is no doubt in my mind that the project is continuing.”

With the state grant, EMU created a new approach to home care where the emphasis is to design meaningful experiences for people with dementia, said Lisa Gray, project co-director of the Respite Project at EMU. The University’s in-home respite project, a service of EMU’s Alzheimer’s Education Program, provides a break for many people -- those with dementia or severe memory loss, their caretakers and their families. Respite care is traditionally custodial, performing activities of daily living such as personal care.

The EMU project provides families with home visits and focuses on the remaining abilities the person has rather than on what they can’t do, said Gray.Since June 2001, 25 families in Washtenaw, Oakland, Wayne, Lenawee and Livingston counties have been helped by the project. Juniors, seniors and graduate students from gerontology, dietetics, occupational therapy or nursing receive special training on dementia before going into the home. They collect information on the person’s hobbies, past jobs and medical history before designing an activity plan for their weekly, three-to-four hour visits.

Student and family activities include gardening, going to a restaurant, or attending a symphony or concert. One person with dementia had been interested in horses, so the student brought in a saddle and other equipment to his home for the two of them to clean. “Most families are impressed that students are interested in them and shocked as to what students can do with a patient,” said Gray. Wallace and Cheng developed a plan for Joseph to help with the meals. Joseph washed potatoes, stirred food and helped set the table. They discovered that he could not distinguish between actual food on the table and the printed flowers on a tablecloth, so they changed to a plain table covering.

“Joe is not aware of everything that’s happening around him, but he understands conversation and enjoys the familiar surroundings,” said Mattie. He first exhibited signs of dementia, said his wife, when he was a church treasurer and was making mistakes on the financial records. Later, as a repairman, he began getting lost on familiar routes. Growing up in Alabama on a 40-acre farm provided many memories for Joseph. In 1937, he met George Washington Carver, inventor of peanut butter and many other peanut products. Today, Joseph has a hard time remembering many things without help from Mattie.

Both Mattie and the students have exchanged recipes. Mattie has traded several of her southern recipes for the students’ secret to good salmon. “I learned a lot from them (the Wrights),” said Wallace “You see many people with dementia, but until you spend some quality time with someone, you don’t truly understand it (the disease).”

The students also have gained insights into African-American culture, life in post-World War II Detroit, Mattie’s make-do homemaking skills and her love of poetry. “I think I made a difference in their lives,” said Wallace. “Not in any earth-shattering way, but I think I did make their life happier.”

Save the TaTas

At the beginning of this year, I stopped exploring how women with breast cancer represent their experiences and identities by blogging. I completed enough background research to get familiar with the pages of women who either passed on, or just stopped writing. After talking with a friend who is a survivor of breast cancer, I decided that I did not feel comfortable with continuing the research. (Since then, my Grandmother has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. This changes my thinking on the research a bit, especially since my mother and aunt have decided to use a blog to update our far-flung family on Grandma's health).

At that time, I was unable to adequately resolve personal questions surrounding the ethics of my participant observation work.

Thes ethical dilemmas were made more complex by nagging questions about the conceptual framework within which I was situating the research. In a nutshell, with the help of contributors to blogher and a book by Samantha King entitled "Pink Ribbons, Inc: Breast Cancer and The Politics of Philanthropy" (hyperlinks added after I cooked dinner), I had begun to explore how the blogs of women with breast cancer were part of a larger, continuing discourse on the ownership of women's experiences and the commodification of that experience.

However, I'd like to thank the two anonymous women standing outside of the Today show this morning for--as Justin Timberlake would say--"Bringing Sexy Back," for leading me to this website, and for rekindling my interest in the project.