Annie's Ghosts

JOURNEY INTO A FAMILY SECRET

PROGRAM GUIDE | READER’S GUIDE | PARTNER LIST | BOOK EXCERPT | SPECIAL EVENTS JOIN THE STATEWIDE DISCUSSION. Annie’s Ghosts: A Journey into a Family Secret Steve Luxenberg

Beth Luxenberg was an only child. Or so everyone thought. Six months after Beth’s death, her secret emerged. It had a name: Annie. 2 | GREAT MICHIGAN READ

Welcome to the Great Michigan Read! The Michigan Humanities Council’s Great Michigan Read is a book club for the entire state. With a statewide focus on a single book – Annie’s Ghosts: A Journey into a Family Secret by Steve Luxenberg – it aims to connect us as Michiganians by deepening our understanding of our state, our society, and our history.

ABOUT THE MICHIGAN HUMANITIES COUNCIL HOW CAN I PARTICIPATE? CURRENT MICHIGAN HUMANITIES The Michigan Humanities Council connects people Pick up a copy of Annie’s Ghosts and supporting COUNCIL PROGRAMS INCLUDE: and communities by supporting quality cultural materials at Meijer, your local library, or your Great Michigan Read: A statewide reading and discussion programs. It is Michigan’s nonprofit affiliate of the favorite bookseller – or download the e-book. program featuring a work of Michigan literature. National Endowment for the Humanities. Since 1974, Read the book, share and discuss it with your the Michigan Humanities Council has supported friends, and participate in Great Michigan Read Prime Time Family Reading Time®: Using children’s communities through family reading programs, activities in your community and online. literature, this family literacy program stimulates critical special cultural and historical exhibits, book thinking about humanities themes and bonds families Register your library, school, company, or book club discussions, author tours, scholarly lectures and around the practice of reading. and receive copies of reader’s guides, teacher’s mentors, films, cultural celebrations, and school guides, bookmarks, and other informational materi - Arts & Humanities Touring Program: Provides grants to programs and performances that have reached als at no cost. Nonprofit organizations – including support community performances drawn from a juried millions of Michiganians. schools and libraries – may apply for discussion kits, list of Michigan’s top 175 performing and visual artists, WHY ANNIE’S GHOSTS ? which include free copies of Annie’s Ghosts . authors, musicians, historians, and storytellers. Annie’s Ghosts is part memoir, part detective story, Nonprofit organizations may also apply for $500 Poetry Out Loud: A national poetry recitation competi - and part history. Employing his skills as a journalist quick grants to support programs related to the tion for high school students. By encouraging youth to while struggling to maintain his empathy as a son, 2013-14 Great Michigan Read. learn about great poetry through memorization and author and Detroit native Steve Luxenberg pieces For more details, including an updated calendar of performance, students master public speaking skills, build together the story of his mother’s motivations, his events, additional resources, and to register your self-confidence, and learn about their literary heritage. aunt’s unknown life, and the times in which they organization, visit www.michiganhumanities.org, lived. His search takes him to imperial Russia and Journey Stories: This Smithsonian traveling exhibit join the Michigan Humanities Council Facebook Depression-era Detroit, through the Holocaust in explores individual stories that illustrate the critical roles group, or follow @mihumanities (#greatMIread) Ukraine and the Philippine war zone, and back travel and movement have played in building our diverse on Twitter. to the hospitals where Annie and many others American society. It is touring five rural Michigan languished in anonymity. communities in 2013-14. Annie’s Ghosts is a story about family secrets, A SPECIAL INVITATION Bridging Cultures: A new initiative of the National personal journeys, genealogy, mental disability Endowment for the Humanities that engages the power and illness, poverty, and immigration. It is a story FOR TEACHERS of the humanities to promote understanding and mutual of reframing one’s self-understanding once a fam - respect for people with diverse histories, cultures and Annie’s Ghosts is appropriate for ily secret is revealed, providing insight into how perspectives within the United States and abroad. high school and college students. our identities are shaped by learning something Grants Programs: Major grants (up to $15,000), shockingly new about our family history. Visit www.michiganhumanities.org to register your classroom for the Great Michigan Read. Planning grants (up to $1,000) and Quick grants Classrooms are eligible for free teacher’s (up to $500) provide critical support to cultural guides, reader’s guides, and bookmarks. organizations in all corners of the state. Classrooms are also eligible for up to 30 free Visit www.michiganhumanities.org for more information GET CONNECTED copies of Annie’s Ghosts . & FOLLOW US! about the Council, and sign up for our print and/or digital mailings. For additional copies of this special newspaper Join the Michigan Humanities Council program guide, sign up with the Detroit Michigan Humanities Council Facebook group, or follow @mihumanities Newspapers in Education program on their 119 Pere Marquette Drive, Suite 3B (#greatMIread) on Twitter. website at www.nieonline.com/detroit . Lansing, MI 48912 michiganhumanities.org | 517.372.7770 MICHIGAN HUMANITIES COUNCIL | 3

Q&A WITH AUTHOR STEVE LUXENBERG t s o P

n o t g n i h s a W

e h T

. g r e b n e x u L

e v e t Q&A S WITH STEVE LUXENBERG

STEVE LUXENBERG How did you approach writing Steve Luxenberg, a Washington Post associate Annie’s Ghosts ? editor, has worked for 38 years as a newspaper I saw Annie’s Ghosts as a story about a search, editor and reporter. Post reporters working about putting myself in someone else’s place, with Steve have won two Pulitzer Prizes for about whether the truth can be found, and how to explanatory journalism. navigate the distortions that memory imposes on the truth. It seemed natural to write the story in the Steve grew up in Detroit, where Annie’s Ghosts first person, as part memoir and part history, primarily takes place. He attended Detroit public while separating my memories from those of the schools, including Henry Ford High School. people I found and interviewed. He and his wife, Mary Jo Kirschman, a former school librarian, live in Baltimore. They have As you got deeper in your research, what two adult children. was the biggest surprise you encountered? I never thought I’d find so many secrets, with so Annie’s Ghosts was a Washington Post Best Book many levels and implications—and not just in my of 2009 and a Michigan Notable Book in 2010. own family. In retrospect, I’m not sure why I wasn’t Following the publication of Annie’s Ghosts , prepared for that. I suppose it seems obvious that Steve was invited to give the 10th annual Horace one secret begets other secrets. W. Davenport Lecture in the Medical Humanities, sponsored by the University of Michigan’s Center The difficulty of getting Annie’s records also was a for the History of Medicine. surprise. I had no idea that a family member would have such trouble seeking information about someone long dead. I think we need to revisit our I never thought I’d find so many privacy laws, and make sure that they don’t prevent us from telling our own history or, most important, secrets, with so many levels and learning about past medical issues that could af - implications—and not just in my fect future generations in the family. own family. In retrospect, I’m What is the story’s most compelling lesson ANNIE’S GHOSTS not sure why I wasn’t prepared for today? Two sisters, born two years apart to immigrant parents, The power of secrecy cannot be underestimated. grow up in Depression-era Detroit. One—Beth, my mother— escapes eight years of low-paying jobs and her family’s for that. I suppose it seems For many families, secrets can be a destructive force. walk-up apartment by marrying and moving away from They can affect generations long after the secret is obvious that one secret the neighborhood that she equates with broken promises created. I don’t want anyone to believe that we need and broken lives. begets other secrets. to live our lives like open books, but if a secret is The other sister? She was my mother’s secret. harming the secret keeper, if carrying that secret is causing the secret keeper pain, then my rule of Annie’s Ghosts is their story, as best as I could unearth it. thumb is to release the secret. My mother would -Steve Luxenberg have been a much happier person if she had released her secret. 4 | GREAT MICHIGAN READ

FAMILY SECRETS AND PERSONAL IDENTITIES

. y l i m

a Family secrets take many forms and are f

g r e b

n discovered in various ways – through a slip e x u L

y s

e in conversation, by a family member doing t r u o C

. 2 genealogical research, through a treasure e g a

t a

a trove of old letters, or even through h s r a M

d social media. n a

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FAMILY SECRETS & PERSONAL IDENTITIES Family secrets take many forms and are discovered LETTER TO STEVE’S MOM in various ways – through a slip in conversation, “Darling precious angel, by a family member doing genealogical research, I’m ashamed to say this darling. I’m not making a very through a treasure trove of old letters, or even good soldier. It’s getting me down dear and I’m going to through social media. pieces. I just can’t take it…it’s impossible to take all Family secrets are kept for various reasons and that’s dished out. They just don’t seem to have any heart. I’m being worked 18-20 hours a day, and every nite often have unintended consequences, especially lying in bed I shed a tear. I just can’t help it. Perhaps for later generations. Annie’s Ghosts ’ author Steve I’m not a man –at least in the army way.… I doubt Luxenberg notes, “Shame is often the reason why whether I’ll ever be the same where and if I return many people create and keep a secret. Shame is to you.” a terribly destructive emotion. If we could avoid “Precious, if it’s all at possible in any way regardless of shame, we would all be better oﬀ.” price –get me out of this –if I stay much longer I’ll be in Secrets and their discovery can powerfully shape the insane asylums. I know I shouldn’t be saying this our identities. Steve Luxenberg states, “Identity –I can’t help it. I know once and for all I won’t be able to take 17 weeks of this hell. Please, darling, do what - along with secrecy is one of the overarching themes ever you can –I really don’t know what you’ll be able to of the book. My mom took on a new identity, do –do something –please –please. Don’t get upset as I reinvented herself as the girl who grew up as an know you probably will be –control yourself as much only child after her sister Annie went into the as you can and try and see if there is anyway for me to institution. Annie lost her identity when she went get out of this mess. Even if you have to write the presi - to Eloise, essentially becoming anonymous. In trying dent –I mean it…”

to reconstruct their stories, and the times in which February 2, 1944, Steve’s Dad at Camp Wolters, they lived, I had to reinterpret my own identity – and writing to Steve’s Mom in Detroit confront how my mom’s secret-keeping deﬁned me and my understanding of my family.”

DISCUSSION POINTS “Shame is often the reason why HAVE? HOW? many people create and keep Have you discovered something unexpected about your family? a secret. Shame is a terribly If so, how did it shape your self- destructive emotion. If we understanding? could avoid shame, we would

all be better oﬀ.” STEVE LUXENBERG

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Broyard, Bliss. One Drop: My Father’s Hidden Life: A Story of Race and Family Secrets. New York: Little Brown, 2007. Cohen, Deborah . Family Secrets: Shame and Privacy in Modern Britain. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. Above: Images of Steve’s Mom and Dad, letters from Dad while away at Camp Wolters. Courtesy Luxenberg family MICHIGAN HUMANITIES COUNCIL | 5

MENTAL HEALTH CARE IN MICHIGAN: 1841-2013

As Michigan’s general population grew, so did its population of citizens experiencing mental illness. The state recognized its responsibility to care for those experiencing mental illness, opening the Michigan Asylum for the Insane in Kalamazoo in 1859. As the need for mental health care grew, additional facilities opened.

MENTAL HEALTH CARE IN MICHIGAN: 1841-2013 The history of mental health care in Michigan begins in 1841 when Bridget “Biddy” Hughes was judged legally insane and admitted to the Wayne County Poor House. As Michigan’s general population grew, so did its population of citizens experiencing mental illness. The state recognized its responsibility to care for those experiencing mental illness, opening n o

i the Michigan Asylum for the Insane in Kalamazoo s s i

m in 1859. As the need for mental health care grew, m o C

a additional facilities opened. c i r o t s i H By the mid-1950s, more than “20,000 Michiganians d n a l t

s with mental illness were residing in state- or e W

o county-operated psychiatric facilities” (Michigan

y s e t

r Mental Health Commission Final Report, u o C Appendix B, 13).

BRIDGET “BIDDY” HUGHES In 1963, the passage of the Michigan Community Eloise’s ﬁrst patient, admitted in 1841. She remained Mental Health Services Act (Public Act 54) empow - there until her death 54 years later in 1895. ered each of the state’s counties to establish and administer community mental health services. In 1974,

DISCUSSION POINTS the passage of the Michigan Mental Health Code (Public Act 258) established the principle of “least Top: Walter P. Reuther Psychiatric Hospital. Center: Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital; Courtesy of State Archives of Michigan. Bottom: Center for Forensic Psychiatry; Courtesy of Michigan HAVE? HOW? restrictive setting,” which solidiﬁed the trend of Department of Community Health. How have understandings of mental deinstitutionalization. As a result of deinstitution- disability, mental illness, and mental alization, the inpatient census in public psychiatric CURRENT STATE-RUN FACILITIES health changed over time? Currently, the Michigan Department of Community Health hospitals fell to 5,000 by 1975 (Michigan Mental maintains four state psychiatric hospitals and one state How have these understandings shaped Health Commission Final Report, Appendix B, 15). psychiatric facility for children and adolescents. In 2013, the provision of mental health services? Since 1996, person-centered planning has been Michigan’s state psychiatric bed capacity totaled 1,017. required by the Michigan Mental Health Code. At the same time, 46 Community Mental Health Service Currently, the Michigan Department of Community Programs served all 83 counties in Michigan. Health maintains four state psychiatric hospitals (in Westland, Caro, Kalamazoo, and Saline) and one state psychiatric facility for children and adolescents (in Northville). In 2013, Michigan’s state psychiatric ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: 20,000 Author Unknown. An Historical Outline of the bed capacity totaled 1,017. At the same time, 46 By the mid-1950s, more than “20,000 Beginnings and Development of Michigan Community Mental Health Service Programs served Institutions for the Insane and Similar Dependents. Michiganians with mental illness were all 83 counties in Michigan. Archived at the Library of Michigan. 1939. residing in state- or county-operated Michigan Department of Community Health. psychiatric facilities.” Combating Stigma Within the Michigan Mental Health System: A Toolkit for Change . 2011. Michigan Mental Health Commission. Final Report. 2004. 6 | GREAT MICHIGAN READ

ELOISE HOSPITAL 1832-1984 n o i s s i m m o C

l a c i r o t s The Wayne County Poor House – Eloise’s i H

d n a l t

progenitor – was founded in 1832, ﬁve years s e W

y s e t

before Michigan became a state. r u o C

. l a t i p s

From cabinets at Eloise. Courtesy of Elizabeth G. Conley, 2008. o H

e s i o l E

ELOISE HOSPITAL: 1832-1984 o

e k a

The Wayne County Poor House – Eloise’s progenitor s e m a

– was founded in 1832, five years before Michigan N became a state. Its original property, located at Gratiot and Mt. Elliott avenues in Hamtramck LITTLE ELOISE Township, deteriorated quickly. In 1834, 280 acres The name Eloise is derived from the name of the post office were purchased in Nankin Township, now the City of established at the Poor House in 1894. The U.S. Postal Service Westland, for a new poorhouse. In 1839, 35 people required that post offices have original names —Eloise was were transferred to the new location. named after the postmaster’s four-year-old daughter.

The name Eloise is derived from the name of the post office established at the Poor House in 1894. The U.S. Postal Service required that post offices have original names – Eloise was named after the 902 postmaster’s four-year-old daughter. Eloise occupied 902 acres, and also Eloise, like many of its peer institutions, developed had its own farm, including “barns, a into a “self-supporting community with its own police piggery, root cellars, a tobacco curing and fire department, railroad and trolley stations, building, and greenhouses.” bakery, amusement hall, laundries, and a power - • house” (Ibbotson 7). Eloise also had its own farm, including “barns, a piggery, root cellars, a tobacco curing building, and greenhouses” (Ibbotson 7). 10,000 At its peak during the Great Depression, Eloise occupied 902 acres and housed 10,000 patients At its peak during the Great Depression, (Ibbotson 8). Eloise housed 10,000 patients.

Farm operations ceased in 1958. Some of the larger buildings were vacated in 1973. The general hospital closed in 1984. 1984 Today, four buildings remain (two of which are Farm operations ceased in 1958. habitable) on a small parcel of land. Some of the larger buildings were vacated in 1973. The general hospital closed in 1984. DISCUSSION POINTS

WHAT? What do you think it was like to live at Eloise? ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: What would it be like to visit Eloise? Clark, Alvin C. A History of the Wayne County Inﬁrmary, Psychiatric, and General Hospital Complex at Eloise, Michigan: 1832-1982. Ibbotson, Patricia. Eloise: Poorhouse, Farm, Asylum, and Hospital 1839-1984. Chicago: Arcadia, 2002. From Top: Cannery Employees; Music Therapy; Sleeping Quarters at Eloise. Courtesy Westland Historical Commission. Bottom: Eloise today. www.cityofwestland.com/historicalcommission MICHIGAN HUMANITIES COUNCIL | 7

PORTRAITS OF HONOR: OUR MICHIGAN HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS

Portraits of Honor cherishes and honors each and every Michigan survivor. For so long, Holocaust survivors have not been appreciated for what they endured and for what they have gone on to accomplish in their lives after the war.

OUR MICHIGAN HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS New research is teaching us more about the scope of the Holocaust. On March 1, 2013, The New York Times reported that researchers at the United Anna Oliwek’s postwar identiﬁcation card. Courtesy of Anna Oliwek. States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, SURVIVOR: ANNA OLIWEK D.C., have now cataloged 42,500 Nazi ghettos and NAME AT BIRTH camps that existed throughout Europe from 1933 to Chayka Shlain 1945. An estimated 15-20 million people died or PLACE AND YEAR OF BIRTH were imprisoned in the documented sites. Radziwillow, Ukraine, 1923 NAME OF GHETTO After the Holocaust, some survivors immigrated Radziwillow to the U.S.; many of those came to Michigan. ESCAPE OR HIDING PLACE The Program for Holocaust Survivors and Families, Novomoskovsk, Russia using a a service of Jewish Senior Life of Metropolitan false German identity Detroit, has created an interactive educational YEAR OF DEATH 2013 exhibit, Portraits of Honor: Our Michigan Holocaust 42,500 Survivors, to document the lives of our Michigan Holocaust Survivors for education and posterity. NAZI CAMPS & GHETTOS The exhibit is housed at the Holocaust Memorial Researchers at the United States Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills and available online at Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., have now cataloged 42,500 Nazi ghettos and www.portraitsofhonor.org. camps that existed throughout Europe from 1933 to 1945. One of our Michigan Survivors, Anna Oliwek, was instrumental in helping Steve Luxenberg learn more about his family history. You can learn more about DISCUSSION POINTS Anna by reading Annie’s Ghosts and from her DO? DID? HOW? portrait in Portraits of Honor. Do you have family members who left their To be included in the permanent exhibit, survivors home country because of persecution? can contact Dr. Charles Silow at 248.661.2999 or at Did they ﬁnd solace and protection in their [email protected]. Families of Michigan Survivors adopted countries? who have passed away are also encouraged to How can future generations keep their contact Dr. Silow to have their loved ones stories alive? Scan to Visit the Portraits included in the exhibit. of Honor Website

15-2 0Million ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: An estimated 15-20 million people died or were Lichtblau, Eric. “The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking.” The imprisoned in the documented sites. New York Times . March 1, 2013. www.portraitsofhonor.org www.holocaustcenter.org 8 | GREAT MICHIGAN READ

COMMUNITY PARTNERS / RETAIL PARTNERS IN MICHIGAN

COMMUNITY PARTNERS Community Mental Health Hillsdale Community Library , Michigan Disability Rights Pageturners , Dearborn Tamarack District Library , American Association of Authority of Clinton-Eaton- Hillsdale Coalition , East Lansing Patmos Library, Jamestown Lakeview University Women Book Ingham Counties , Lansing Historical Society of Greater Michigan State University - Pentwater High School The Fred L. Mathews Library Discussion Group , Kalamazoo Community Mental Health Lansing , Lansing College of Arts and Letters , National Honor Society , at Southwestern Michigan Alden District Library , Alden Authority of Muskegon Holocaust Memorial Center , East Lansing Pentwater College , Dowagiac Allen Park High School, County, Muskegon Farmington Hills Michigan State University Peter White Public Library, The KidSAKE Foundation, Allen Park Coopersville Area District Hope College (Faculty- Community Club , Okemos Marquette Port Huron Artworks , Big Rapids Library , Coopersville Student Young Adult Michigan State University – Petoskey Public Schools, The Orion Township Public Auburn Hills Public Library , Crawford County Library Book Club) , Holland School of Social Work, Petoskey Library , Lake Orion Auburn Hills System , Grayling Howell Carnegie District East Lansing Pickford Community Library , Third Wednesday Book Club, Bacon Memorial District Cromaine District Library , Library , Howell Milford Public Library , Milford Pickford Saginaw Library , Wyandotte Hartland Interlochen Center for the Montcalm Area Reading Pinckney Community High Thornapple Kellogg School Bay County Library System , Darcy Library of Beulah, Arts , Interlochen Council , Greenville School , Pinckney and Community Library , Bay City Beulah Ionia County Community Morton Township Library , Plymouth District Library , Middleville Bayliss Public Library , Davenport University , Mental Health, Ionia Mecosta Plymouth Three Rivers Public Library , Sault Ste. Marie Grand Rapids Ironwood Carnegie Library , MSU Federal Credit Union , Portage District Library , Three Rivers Beaver Island District Library , Delta College Humanities Ironwood East Lansing Portage Timothy C. Hauenstein Beaver Island Center , University Center Ishpeming Carnegie Public Munising School Public Public Libraries of Saginaw , Reynolds Township Library , Howard City Benton Harbor Public Library , Delton District Library , Delton Library , Ishpeming Library , Munising Saginaw Benton Harbor Detroit Public Library – Hub - Jackson District Library , Muskegon Area District Pullman Library Book Club, Traverse Area District Library bard Branch, Detroit Jackson Library – Dalton Branch, Pullman – East Bay Branch , Big Rapids Community Traverse City Library , Big Rapids DeWitt District Library , Jackson District Library – Twin Lake Putnam District Library , DeWitt Grass Lake Branch , Grass Lake Muskegon Area District Nashville Traverse Area District Library , Blair Memorial Library , Fife Lake Public Library, Clawson Dimondale United Methodist Jewish Family Service Library – Egelston Branch, Ransom District Library , Muskegon Fife Lake Book Connoisseurs, Church , Dimondale of Metropolitan Detroit , Plainwell Downriver High School , West Bloomfield Muskegon Area District Traverse Area District Library , East Lansing Redford Township Library , Interlochen Public Library, Brownstown Jewish Historical Society of Library – Fruitport Branch, Redford BookBreak! Berkley High Fruitport Interlochen School Book Discussion Dundee Branch Library , Michigan , West Bloomfield Reed City Public Library , Dundee Kehillat Israel , Lansing Muskegon Area District Traverse Area District Library , Group, Berkley Reed City Kingsley Branch Library, Edwardsburg Area Historical Kent District Library – Library – Heights Branch, Boyne City High School , Muskegon Heights Renaissance High School , Kingsley Boyne City Museum, Edwardsburg Byron Township Branch , Redford Byron Center Muskegon Area District Traverse Area District Library , Boyne District Library , Escanaba Public Library , Roseville Public Library , Peninsula Community Escanaba Kent District Library , Library – Holton Branch, Boyne City Holton Roseville Library, Traverse City Bradner Library/Pageturners/ Excellent 8 Book Club , Livonia Caledonia Township Branch , Saginaw Valley State Caledonia Muskegon Area District Traverse Area District Library , Schoolcraft College , Livonia Ferndale Public Library , University Osher Lifelong Woodmere (Main) Branch, Kent District Library , Library – Montague Branch, Canton Public Library , Ferndale Montague Learning Institute Book Club , Traverse City Canton Township Gesu Peace & Justice Book Comstock Township Branch , University Center Comstock Park Muskegon Area District Tuscola Behavioral Health Capital Area District Library – Club , Detroit Sebewaing Township Library , Systems , Tuscola Kent District Library – Library – Muskegon Township Aurelius Library , Aurelius Gladstone Public Library , Branch, Muskegon Sebewaing Van Buren District Library – Gladstone Gaines Township Branch , Sheldon Pines School , Capital Area District Library – Grand Rapids Muskegon Area District Antwerp Sunshine Branch , Holt Library , Holt Grace A. Dow Memorial Library – North Muskegon Holland Mattawan Library , Midland Kent District Library – Southfield Public Library, Capital Area District Library – Grandville Branch, Grandville Branch, North Muskegon Vermontville Township Leslie Library , Leslie Grand Rapids Academic Muskegon Area District Southfield Library , Vermontville Enrichment Center of Kent District Library – Spring Lake District Library , Capital Area District Library – Kentwood Branch , Kentwood Library – Norton Shores Wayne State University Press , Mason Library , Mason Innovations , Grand Rapids Branch, Norton Shores Spring Lake Detroit Kent District Library – Capital Area District Library – Grand Rapids Public Library , Muskegon Area District SPRY , DeWitt West Michigan Genealogical Grand Rapids Krause Memorial Branch , Stockbridge Library , Rockford Library – Ravenna Branch, St. Clair County Community Society , Grand Rapids Stockbridge Grandpa’s Barn , Copper Harbor Ravenna Mental Health , Port Huron Kent District Library – Westland Public Library , Capital Area District Library – Greater Shaftsburg Metropol - Plainfield Township Branch , National Alliance on Mental St. Clair County Library , Westland Williamston Library , itan Book Club , Laingsburg Grand Rapids Illness, Lansing Inc. , Lansing Port Huron White Lake Township Library , Williamston Hackett Catholic Central High Kent District Library – National Alliance on Mental St. Clair Public Library , White Lake Caroline Kennedy Library , School , Kalamazoo Wyoming Branch , Wyoming Illness Saginaw, MI Support St. Clair White Pine District Library , Dearborn Heights Group , Saginaw Hamburg Township Library , Ladies Literary Club , Wayne St. Clair Shores Public Library , Stanton Castle Museum , Saginaw Hamburg New Tech High School , St. Clair Shores RETAIL PARTNERS Lansing Community College , Pinckney Charlotte Community Library , Hamtramck Public Library , Lansing St. Johns Booking Buds , Meijer , all locations Charlotte Hamtramck Newly Minted , St. Johns St. Johns Lapeer County Intermediate Horizon Books , Traverse City Chesterfield Township Library , Happy Bookers , Manistee School District Adult/ North Country Community St. Joseph High School , Kazoo Books , Kalamazoo Chesterfield Mental Health, Petoskey St. Joseph Happy Bookers , Midland Community Education , Attica McLean & Eakin Booksellers, Chippewa County Historical Hastings Public Library , Mackinaw Area Public Library , Northern Lakes Community St. Joseph Public Library , Petoskey Society , Sault Ste. Marie Mental Health , Traverse City St. Joseph Hastings Mackinaw City Schuler Books & Music , Clarkston Independence HELO Club , East Lansing Marcellus Public Schools Nottawa Township Library , St. Matthew's United all locations Centreville District Library , Clarkston Henika District Library , Volinia , Marcellus Methodist Church , Livonia Clinton-Macomb Public Wayland Memphis Library , Memphis Oakridge High School , St. Patrick School , Portland Library, Clinton Township Muskegon as of August 1, 2013 Herrick District Library , Metro Detroit Readers Book Sterling Heights Public Community Mental Health & Holland Club , Grosse Pointe Park Older Persons’ Commission, Library , Sterling Heights Rochester Substance Abuse Services of Hiawatha Behavioral Health , Swan Valley High School , St. Joseph County , Centreville Sault Ste. Marie Olivet College , Olivet Saginaw MICHIGAN HUMANITIES COUNCIL | 9

COMMUNITY PARTNERS / RETAIL PARTNERS HOW TO BECOME A PARTNER

COMMUNITY & RETAIL PARTNERS IN MICHIGAN

BECOME A PARTNER HOW TO PARTICIPATE To host a program, register online at: www.michiganhumanities.org/programs/tgmr/

To ﬁnd out more about participation, or a program in your area, contact Michigan Humanities Council program oﬃcer Carla Ingrando.

E. [email protected] P. 517. 372. 7770 michiganhumanities.org

Scan for more info. 10 | GREAT MICHIGAN READ

GENEALOGY/ FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH

Before writing Annie’s Ghosts , author Steve Luxenberg knew little about his family’s history. He calls himself a storyteller, not a genealogist, but he taught himself as much as he could about the techniques that genealogists use.

GENEALOGY/FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH You can begin your search for census and other Discover your family history – Before writing Annie’s Ghosts , author Steve records by using online databases such as Luxenberg knew little about his family’s history. familysearch.org and ancestry.com. These and start your family tree – who He calls himself a storyteller, not a genealogist, other resources are available to the public at the knows what hidden family but he taught himself as much as he could about Archives of Michigan in Lansing. Online databases secrets you might uncover. the techniques that genealogists use. He began by are also available through many public libraries, talking with family members. Then he traced the and for a fee, you can subscribe to them yourself Before delving into census paper trail that most of our ancestors leave behind: and have access from your home computer. census records, birth and death certificates, old and other records, it is very Available for free at Seeking Michigan city directories, court and immigration records, (seekingmichigan.org), the Archives of Michigan helpful to be able to narrow photo albums, and much more. has developed a step-by-step guide to help your research by name, Archives of Michigan Senior Archivist Kris Rzepczynski researchers get started. With the combination says that the first step to researching family history of onsite research at archives and libraries, location, and time period. is to ask “any and all family members key questions online research at subscription databases, and such as who, where, and when?” Before delving into the network of local genealogical societies census and other records, he says, it is very helpful to across the state, exploring your family history be able to narrow your research by name, location, has never been easier. and time period. Online databases are also DISCUSSION POINTS available through many public HAVE? WHAT? Have you tried to research your family’s history? libraries, and for a fee, you What was the most interesting thing you learned? can subscribe to them yourself What was the most difficult roadblock you encountered? and have access from your home computer.

WHERE TO BEGIN YOUR SEARCH

GET STARTED Online databases are also available through many public libraries, and CYNDI’S LIST FAMILY SEARCH SEEKING MICHIGAN ANCESTRY.COM for a fee, you can subscribe to them www.cyndislist.com www.familysearch.org www.seekingmichigan.org www.ancestry.com yourself and have access from your An excellent starting point This free website has an The free, digital platform for Access billions of genealogy home computer. for online research. impressive array of records the Archives of Michigan. records including Census, from across the world. SSDI & Military records. [ MICHIGAN HUMANITIES COUNCIL | 11

IMMIGRATION & MIGRATION TO MICHIGAN

The growth of the auto industry in the 20th century brought a new wave of immigrants to Michigan, including Arabs, Poles, Russians, Hungarians, Romanians, and Greeks. Joining them were African Americans from the south and whites from southern Appalachia.

IMMIGRATION & MIGRATION TO MICHIGAN In the 1830s and 1840s, freed slaves migrated north “The original settlers of Michigan were the Paleo- to Michigan, often settling in rural Cass County Indians,” descendants of people who crossed the (Dunbar and May 243). Bering Strait from Asia roughly 14,000 years ago The 19th century also saw numerous ethnic groups – (Glazier and Helweg 19). Between 1000 BCE and Swedes, Finns, Dutch, Norwegians, Irish, Cornish, 1650 CE, the Ojibwa (Chippewa), Ottawa, and Italians, Chinese and Canadians – ﬂow into Michigan to Potawatomi migrated to Michigan from the eastern work in its lumber, mining, and agricultural industries. seaboard, settling in the upper and lower peninsulas (Clifton, Cornell, and McClurken v). The growth of the auto industry in the 20th century brought a new wave of immigrants to In the 17th century, “the French were the ﬁrst Michigan, including Arabs, Poles, Russians, Europeans to come to Michigan” as explorers and Hungarians, Romanians and Greeks. Joining them traders (Glazier and Helweg 22; Dunbar and May 17). were African Americans from the south and From Top: African American families migrating north. Library of Congress, LC-USF34-040841. Finnish miners in Smith Mine. Michigan Historical Collections. Box 1, Folder: Ethnic History of DISCUSSION POINTS whites from southern Appalachia (Frazer 712; Michigan. Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. Hassoun 33; Glazier and Helweg 70). HOW? WHAT? ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: How do you connect to your ethnic heritage? After the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act Clifton, James A., George L. Cornell, and James M. McClurken. ended racial discrimination in immigration policy, People of the Three Fires: The Ottawa, Potawatami, and What does it mean to you? Ojibway of Michigan. Grand Rapids: The Grand Rapids immigrants increasingly came from Latin America, Inter-Tribal Council, 1986. Asia, and Africa. Dunbar, Willis F. and George S. May. Michigan: A History o f the The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 brought Wolverine State, 3rd ed. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans migrants from within the United States to Michigan. In 2011, 11.4 percent of Michigan’s immigrants were Publishing Company, 1995. “Thousands of people from New England, New York, born in Mexico, 8 percent in India, and 6.4 percent Frazer, Timothy C. “Michigan.” Encyclopedia of American in Canada (“Michigan Fact Sheet”). Immigration , Volume 2. Ed. Carl L. Bankson, III. Pasadena: Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Canada arrived Salem Press, 2010. by steamship in Detroit to take up residence in the Glazier, Jack and Arthur W. Helweg. Ethnicity in Michigan: Issues Michigan Territory” (Glazier and Helweg 24). and People . East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2001. Hassoun, Rosina J. Arab Americans in Michigan . East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2005. Migration Policy Institute. “Michigan Fact Sheet.” migrationinformation.org. TODAY’S MICHIGAN IMMIGRANTS

After the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act ended racial discrimination in immigration policy, immigrants increasingly came from Latin America, Asia, and Africa. 11.4% 8% 6.4% BORN IN MEXICO BORN IN INDIA BORN IN CANADA [

In 2011, 11.4 percent of Michigan’s immigrants were born in Mexico, 8 percent in India, and 6.4 percent in Canada (“Michigan Fact Sheet”). 12 | GREAT MICHIGAN READ

PROLOGUE TO ANNIE’S GHOSTS

The secret emerged, without warning or provocation, on an ordinary April afternoon in 1995. Secrets, I’ve discovered, have a way of working themselves free of their keepers. I don’t remember what I was doing when I ﬁrst heard about it. If I had been thinking as a journalist rather than as a son, I might have made a few notes. As it is, I’m stuck with half-memories and what I later told my wife, my friends, my newsroom colleagues — and what they recall about what I told them.

Just as secrets have a way of breaking loose, memories It never occurred to me that it was a little odd how My mom was still working at seventy-eight years old, often have a way of breaking down. They elude us, or often Mom worked those “only child” references into still getting herself up every morning and tooling aren’t quite sharp enough, or fool us into remembering her conversations. I simply accepted it as fact, a part down one of Detroit’s many expressways to her book - things that didn’t quite happen that way. Yet much as a of her autobiography, just as I knew that her name keeping job at a tiny company that sold gravestones, family inhabits a house, memories inhabit our stories, was Beth, that she was born in Detroit in 1917, that she a job she had been doing for more than thirty years. make them breathe, give them life. So we learn to live had no middle name, that she hated her job selling But her emphysema, the payoff from a two-pack-a- with the reality that what we remember is an imperfect shoes after graduating from high school, that she day smoking habit that began in her teens, had gotten version of what we know to be true. would have married a guy named Joe if only he had worse. So had her hearing; she fiddled constantly been Jewish, that she was the envy of her friends with her hearing aid, frustrated that she could no What I know for certain is this: On that because of her wildly romantic love affair with my longer understand the quick mumbles that punctuate spring afternoon in 1995, I picked up Clark Gable look-alike father, that she was kind and everyday conversation, but also frantic to avoid the generous and told us growing up to, above all else, sharp whines that burst forth from the tiny device the phone and heard my sister Sashie always tell the truth. whenever it picked up a sudden loud noise, such as say something like, “You’re never the shrieks of happy grandchildren. A sister? “Where did you hear that?” I asked Sashie. going to believe this. Did you know Sash and I are close, although she is twelve years On top of Mom’s periodic trips to the ER for shortness that Mom had a sister?” older. When I first learned to talk, I couldn’t say her of breath, her doctors believed that she was suffering name, Marsha. What came off my untrained tongue from anxiety attacks. It was a chicken-and-egg prob - Of course I didn’t know. My mother was an only child. sounded something like “Sashie.” The mangled lem: The shortness of breath made her anxious, and Even now, I can hear her soft voice saying just those pronunciation stuck. She is Sashie, or Sash, even to her anxiety triggered the feeling that she couldn’t breathe. words. “I’m an only child.” She told that to nearly her husband and some of her friends. She emerged from a February hospitalization with a everyone she met, sometimes within minutes of fistful of prescriptions and a fear that her days of good introduction. She treated her singular birth status as As Sash would say, Mom was not in a good place in the health were behind her. The Xanax made her less anx - a kind of special birthright, as if she belonged to an spring of 1995. Her health, and her state of mind, were ious at first, but within a few weeks, she was fingering exclusive society whose members possessed an often topic A in the long-distance phone calls among the medication as the cause of her insomnia and jitters. esoteric knowledge beyond the comprehension her children. (Our family, like many, is a complicated “It makes me want to crawl out of my skin,” she said. of outsiders. one. My parents, Beth and Jack, married in 1942 and had three sons. I’m the middle one; Mike is As if that wasn’t enough of a roller coaster ride, she She suggested as much to my wife, Mary Jo, during seven years older, and Jeff is three years younger. was following doctors’ orders to quit smoking. She their first getting-to-know-you conversation. That was Sash and her older sister, Evie, were my father’s called cigarettes her “best friends” in times of stress, 1976, four years before Mary Jo and I were married. children from a first marriage that lasted seven years. and these were certainly stressful times, for her and The two of them, girlfriend and mother, were sharing a The girls lived with my parents for a large chunk of for us. There was so much going on with her—the motel room while I recuperated from an emergency their childhood, particularly Sash, who thinks of nicotine withdrawal, the reaction to Xanax, the short - appendectomy that had abruptly ended a weekend her self as having grown up with two families and two ness of breath, the sleepless nights—that it seemed camping trip. (I still wince at the memory, and I’m not mothers—and double the worry when both moms impossible to find a way back to the equilibrium that referring just to the surgery.) As soon as Mom learned began having health problems as they aged. Evie had once ruled our lives. We bounced back and forth, of my plight, she hustled to the Detroit airport and moved out just before I was born, so I never knew her thinking one minute that everything would work out if found her way to rural West Virginia. During their nearly as well as I knew Sash, my “big sister”; Sash she would just give the medication a chance, and the evenings together in the motel, Mom made a big point married and left the house when I was about eight, next that, no, this was crazy, the medication was the about how she felt an unusual connection to Mary Jo, but our relationship remained close as we managed problem, maybe everything depended on getting her her fellow traveler in the only-children club. “I under - that tricky conversion from childhood to adulthood.) doctors to switch her to some other magic pill. stand what it’s like,” Mom assured her. “I know how it is to grow up without brothers and sisters.” MICHIGAN HUMANITIES COUNCIL | 13

PROLOGUE TO

ANNIE’S GHOSTS CONTINUED

She had been feeling so lousy that she didn’t even Naturally, Mom was resisting. Whenever I called her, want to drive. That was a bad sign. Henry Ford himself as my siblings and I were doing almost daily, concern would have smiled to hear her talk about driving with about her health trumped any curiosity about an my father during their courtship days, the feeling of unknown sister. It didn’t seem fair to ask her now, flying along on the open road, your hair free in the when she was so vulnerable. Best to wait, I thought, wind, the sense that the world was yours for the tak - for her return to the strong, self-sufficient woman ing as long as you had wheels. Not even Dad’s sudden we had always known. death in 1980, which sent Mom reeling like nothing else Besides, she was as much in the dark about her sister I had ever seen, had slowed her down. Her Chevrolet as we were. It seemed pointless to ask her a lot of Beretta wasn’t just a car; it symbolized her independ - questions. She might feel betrayed if we revealed that ence, her vitality, her youth, and her freedom. we knew, and to what end? But for several months now, Mom had left her car at That question hung in the air when Sash went to visit home, relying instead on a counselor at Jewish Family Mom several weeks later. Her report wasn’t good. Service, social worker Rozanne Sedler, to take her to “I just spent the worst night of my life,” Sash told me various doctors’ appointments. Rozanne had gotten during an early morning phone call. Mom had sat on to know Mom pretty well during their car rides and the side of her bed most of the night, moaning and counseling sessions, and had urged her to visit a groaning, Sash said, and yet didn’t seem physically psychiatrist. Mom, who had always disdained psychia - sick. She wasn’t eating well, and she was too jittery trists and psychiatry, consented to go—another sign to keep up with the cleaning, so the apartment wasn’t that she was not in a good place. ADMISSION RECORD in its usual spit-spot condition. When I heard Sash’s voice on the phone, I assumed Annie Cohen, an alleged “You want me to come out there, don’t you?” I said. “Yes.” Mom had landed back in the hospital. But a sister? insane person 5/8/40 Sash has no trouble being straightforward; that’s been Looking back, it’s startling to me that I can sum up her modus operandi most of her life. I learned long all we learned initially about Mom’s secret in just a Sash and I had long conversations about what to do. ago to deal with her no-nonsense style, and even to few sentences. Mom had mentioned, at a medical The dominant word in our discussions, as I remember appreciate it. If nothing else, it simplifies decision- visit, that she had a disabled sister. She said she didn’t them now, was “maybe.” Maybe it wasn’t so odd that making that otherwise might drag on, to no one’s gain. know what had happened to this younger sibling— Mom hadn’t mentioned it. Maybe Mom called herself By early evening, I was sitting in Mom’s apartment. the girl had gone away to an institution when she was an only child because she never knew her sister. just two years old and Mom was four. Rozanne was Maybe it wasn’t our place to ask her about it. Maybe That night was a rerun of the previous one. Moans, confused when she heard this; Mom had already we should let her tell us. groans, no sleeping for Mom, or for us. The following informed her, during their many times together, that afternoon, in a hastily arranged meeting in Dr. Hazan’s she was an only child. So Rozanne called Sash to So we decided not to press Mom about it. After all, office, Mom reluctantly agreed to sign herself into the resolve the contradiction. we reasoned, Mom had chosen to hide her sister’s geriatric psych ward at Botsford Hospital so she could existence all these years. She hadn’t told any of us get off the Xanax and start taking the antidepressant. That was it. So little information, so before, and even now, she hadn’t told us directly. many questions. Institutionalized? We weren’t even sure that Mom knew that we knew. In It seemed the best of the options, and we needed fact, we were pretty sure that she didn’t. Rozanne had to do something. We took Mom there the next day For what? Was Mom’s sister severely only brought it up because she was perplexed by the around 5 p.m., as soon as a bed became available, and disabled? Mentally ill? A quick discrepancy. She couldn’t know that her simple query left her there for the night. At 7:30 a.m., the phone calculation: If Mom was four, then her would land like a bombshell. rang. “Steven,” she said, panic evident in her voice, “you have to come take me home. I can’t stay here, sister went away in 1921. What sort of Besides, this wasn’t the best time to probe Mom’s Steven. You don’t understand. This is not the right institutions existed in Michigan during psyche. Her anxiety level had reached a point of place for me. I made a mistake coming here.” incapacitation. Mom’s psychiatrist, Toby Hazan, had that time? I had no clue. Was it possible concluded that depression, not anxiety, was at the I stalled for time to think, unwilling to say anything I that her sister—my aunt—was still alive? root of her problems. He wanted to take her off Xanax might regret. Inside, though, I had plenty of sympathy What was her name? Could we find her? and treat her with an antidepressant that, in rare cases, for her reaction. I had seen the other patients on the could lead to respiratory arrest. Mom’s emphysema ward; everyone was suffering from Alzheimer’s or Would Mom want us to find her? increased the risk. Hazan didn’t feel comfortable other forms of dementia. Grim was not too strong a putting her on the medication at home; he recom - word for what she was facing. mended that Mom voluntarily enter a psych ward for a “Mom, we’ll be there soon,” I said. “We can talk about two-week treatment regimen, which would allow him it then.” to monitor her closely for any adverse side effects. 14 | GREAT MICHIGAN READ

PROLOGUE TO

ANNIE’S GHOSTS CONTINUED

“You don’t understand,” she said. “They took away from some place other than watching the demented “Mom, I think you should stay for a few days. As my pencils. I can’t even do a crossword puzzle.” patients around her. “I can’t stay here,” she repeated, Dr. Hazan said, the law allows him to keep you for That was bad. Finishing the daily crossword, she like a mantra. “Please don’t leave me here alone.” three. If you want to leave after that, even though often said, was her way of proving to herself that he’s saying that it’s against his best judgment, “It’s two weeks, Mom, that’s all,” I said. “You’ll be home she still had all her marbles. you can sign yourself out.” in two weeks. We’ll talk to you every day. You won’t “We’ll be there soon, Mom.” be alone.” I had abandoned her cause. Her son, her own flesh and blood, had gone over to the other side. Out of If that earlier night had been the worst of Sash’s life, I took a good, long look around, and what I saw options, she gave up the battle, at least for that then that Friday was the worst day of mine. On the depressed me, too: patients who couldn’t feed moment. The look of pure fear remained in her eyes, way to the hospital, Sash warned me that Mom would themselves, patients muttering unintelligibly, though—a fear that I wouldn’t truly understand put on a full-court press, begging to go home. Sash patients exhibiting every form of senility I could until much later, when I learn the truth about had already concluded that Mom needed to stay, but I imagine. Mom was the healthiest person there, Mom’s sister—and that’s the image that stayed was ambivalent. “If you decide to take her home,” by far, and it made me cringe to think that I with me long after Sash and I exited the hospital Sash said, with her usual directness, “I can’t be a party would be leaving and that she would be staying. and drove away in May’s cool night air. to it.” So the pressure was on me. That vision of Mom, surrounded by dementia patients, trying to get a pencil so she could do her damn Two weeks later, her new medication working well, Mom wasted no time making her case. She was crossword puzzle, stayed in my head. I retreated to Mom went home. My older brother Mike flew in from unrelenting. I can still remember sitting tensely in a a nearby room to make some phone calls to other Seattle to help her for a few days. A month later, she chair, in the ward’s bright and airy day room, with facilities, hoping to find something better. I found one told Hazan she felt “fantastic.” She had survived the Mom draping herself over my back, cajoling, with a much younger clientele, primarily teenagers ordeal; so had we. coaxing, crying, sweet-talking. who had tried or were threatening to kill themselves. While she was sick, it never seemed like the right time “I can’t stay here,” she pleaded. “Steven, please, What a choice: Suicide or senility—take your pick. to ask her about her sister. Now that she was doing please. I’ll do anything you say, if you just take me As soon as I returned to the day room, Mom resumed better, Sash and I thought she might reveal the secret home.” Our roles had reversed: She was the child, her campaign. “Please, Steven, please. I can’t stay on her own. But she never did. So we let it rest. Hard employing every manipulative trick to get her way. here.” It went on for what seemed like hours. Late as it is for me to fathom this now, we never asked her I was the adult, resisting, observing, comforting her in the afternoon, the three of us—Sash, Mom, and about it; since she didn’t know anything about her as I tried to figure out the right thing— or at least I—met with Hazan in one last attempt to settle her sister’s fate, I guess I didn’t see much point. the best thing—to do. down. Hazan’s notes on the meeting are part of Mom went back to work, back to driving herself, It took all my strength not to give in. I tried not to cry, Mom’s hospital record. back to the independent life that had once seemed and I failed. If seismographs could measure tremors in If you leave the hospital, Hazan asked her, what will gone forever. We cheered, even as we kept trying to the human voice, I’m sure that mine registered a slight you do? persuade her that she might be better off moving earthquake on the Richter scale. As gently as I could closer to one of us. Then, catastrophe: On the after - manage, I told her that we couldn’t just go home, that “I have no plan, I just want to go out,” Mom said noon before her grandson’s wedding in September she wasn’t really able to take care of herself, that the angrily. “I don’t think this is the right place for me. 1998, while smoking a cigarette outside the entrance hospital was the best alternative. I had no idea what This is not home.” to a nonsmoking Seattle hotel, she was knocked off else to say, and no idea that her obvious terror came Home, Hazan bluntly reminded her, had become her feet by the automatic sliding door, breaking her hell—sleepless nights, moaning, groaning. pelvis and sending her into months of painful rehabilitation. Exhausted, she never quite recovered. “My mind tells me I should stay here,” Mom conceded. “Rationally, I know I should stay here.” Then, desper - She died in August 1999, her secret ately, she turned to me. “Please, I just can’t take it.” intact, as far as she knew—until six Sash couldn’t take it either. She left the room. I looked months later, when it surfaced once at Mom. The sight was not pleasant. Her glasses more, unforeseen, uninvited, nearly magnified the tears in her round, expressive eyes. Her face, so striking when she smiled, sagged under the forgotten. pressure of the long day and the exhaustion of several sleepless nights. Her blouse hung loosely on her bony This time, though, the secret had a shoulders. She had lost twenty-five pounds from her name. five-foot-six-inch frame over the past two years, so she now weighed less than one hundred. My heart went out to her, but my head told me that it would be a mistake to take her home. MICHIGAN HUMANITIES COUNCIL | 15

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