Becoming Darlene Author's Note
My wife Gail and I were co-guardians for her sister Carol, who passed away in 2022. Carol had severe autism and was non-verbal. In the 1960s, she was a resident of the former Belchertown State School, an institution in western Massachusetts that became infamous for neglect and rampant abuse. Gail and I joined Advocacy Network, a nonprofit dedicated to the rights and care of individuals with developmental disabilities.
Benjamin Ricci, whose son was also a resident of Belchertown State School, was the driving force of the organization. Ben led parents, other relatives and guardians, in spearheading a class action lawsuit in federal court about the inhumane conditions at Belchertown. Ricci v. Greenblatt gained national attention. In 1973, Judge Joseph L. Tauro issued a Consent Decree that led to significant improvements. He maintained oversight of the case until Belchertown State School closed on December 31, 1992.
It was through Advocacy Network that I met a man named Donald Vitkus, who asked me to help him write his life story. Days after he was born, Donald's unwed mother placed him in foster care. When he was three years old, testing indicated that he had an I.Q. of 41. At age six, he was sent to Belchertown, where he was labeled "retarded," and he grew up in the institution.
Together, Donald and I wrote You'll like it here—The Story of Donald Vitkus, Belchertown Patient #3394(Levellers Press, 2016). He and I were discussing book events at a coffee shop when a woman approached us from a nearby table.
"I couldn't help overhearing your conversation," she said. "I grew up at Belchertown, too."
She and Donald exchanged memories, and I gave her a copy of his book. As she was about to leave our table, I told her there were a number of photographs of the institution in the back pages. When she turned to those images, her hands began to tremble. That woman was Darlene Rameau, and this is her story.
In reconstructing conversations and events, I have made every effort to remain accurate and faithful to Darlene's account. The sequence of some events has been altered, and some names have been changed in the interest of privacy.
Located in a town of the same name, the institution was originally called Belchertown School for the Feeble-Minded. It opened in 1922 with about 500 patients and a hundred employees, and over time, it became the town's biggest employer.
The place looked nice enough from a distance. If you were driving by, you might have thought it was a college campus—lots of brick buildings with sprawling lawns. That's how most people saw it. What happened inside, behind its locked doors, was out of sight and out of mind.
—Ed Orzechowski
Book Sample
Chapter 1: Ginger and Wilfred
If nothing more, Ginger Rameau was productive. With a little help from her husband, Wilfred, she turned out a kid every year or so, and I was number eight. My parents were living in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, at the end of World War II. Fitchburg was a mill town, a place that made clothing, machinery, and potato chips. Ginger and Wilfred made babies. At the end of production, there were fourteen of us.
When my older siblings did the math, they figured out that our mother was about thirteen when she got married. She was 24 when I came along, about a year after Marie, who died in infancy. That's how I got my middle name.
I was born Darlene Marie Rameau on August 30, 1956. I've been told I was so small that my brothers tossed me around like a football.
When I was little, a social worker wrote:
Her parents are Wilfred J. and Virginia (Jordan) Rameau. . . Darlene was born prematurely at seven and one-half months and weighed three pounds. . .
I know I am French-Canadian, but the details are murky. My father apparently came down from Canada. Wilfred had a sister, Dorothy, and two brothers—Frannie and one called "Spider." My mother was from New Hampshire. Her first name was Virginia, but she always went by Ginger.
That's all I know of my family tree. We don't exactly go back to the Mayflower.
I don't remember living with Ginger and Wilfred, and I never considered them my parents. I've always said that I fell from the sky and someone found me under a tree. I would have been better off if that's what really happened.
The same social worker later wrote:
A representative from the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was sent to investigate the Rameau home when Darlene was three years old. The abstract in her record states that, "it was found that Darlene had been segregated from the rest of the family in a filthy room where she soiled and wet her bed and was treated like an animal. She was unable to walk and was not toilet trained."
So I was shipped across town to live in another house. And that's when the voices began.
Becoming Darlene book event video
Clapp Memorial Library, Belchertown MA
Jan. 8, 2025
Becoming Darlene--The Story of Belchertown Patient #4952
My second book is now available from Levellers Press
You'll Like It Here Audiobook is now available. To order, or listen to a sample, click on one of these links:
The Epilogue includes part of a recorded interview with Donald Vitkus.
Ed Orzechowski is the recent recipient of the Dr. Benjamin Ricci Commemorative Award presented at the Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston. You'll Like It Here--The Story of Donald Vitkus, Belchertown Patient #3394, has been a #1 Best Seller for Levellers Press.
His features and columns have appeared in The Springfield Republican, The Daily Hampshire Gazette, The Journal Register, Early American Life magazine, and other publications.
Past president of Advocacy Network, Inc., he and his wife serve on the board of COFAR, an advocacy organization for families and guardians of individuals with developmental disabilities. He has written for The Voice, the newsletter of VOR, and has participated in VOR's annual conferences and visited Congressional offices in Washington, D.C., in support of legislation to protect the rights of the intellectually disabled. A retired high school English teacher and radio newsperson, Ed lives with his wife Gail, a longtime human rights advocate, in Northampton, Massachusetts.