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The Book Talk on "Fannie's Crazy Quilt" next Wednesday at 7 p.m. will be the beginning of a series of book discussions in the learning lab at Kump Education Center. One ongoing theme in the book is the nature of an effective family nurturing network that can support both children and adults.
My reason for looking at primary sources like family letters is because they give each family member a chance to have some say, and families do not always agree.
The reader has first person reports on the life and times of people who were growing up a century ago. They had horses and trains at the outset, and they described their first rides in cars and airplanes. They had newspapers, telegraphs and telephones, but they still wrote love letters every day when the future governor had to be away from his fiancee and future wife. We can see firsthand how different members of the family felt about decision making processes concerning love, money and politics.
American family life has changed radically during the last century, and we need to find remedies for the harms that some of the changes have caused in our culture. Families do not have enough time together, and they do not seem to communicate well -- even with the immediate cellphones responses they can receive.
In the last 50 years, divorce and substance abuse have caused many children to lose contact with one or both parents, and foster families do not seem to be able to make up for the loss of blood relatives. However, the loss of parents is not a new problem for children. In the past, mothers died after childbirth and fathers lost their lives at work or in war.
In "Fannie's Crazy Quilt" there are two examples of mothers who died with the birth of their fifth child. Fannie Logan Scott died after her last child, and four of her children died very young, leaving Edna Scott Kump alone in the care of her father. He remarried Edna's Aunt Emma, and they provided a home for Edna. Then H.G. Kump's sister died after her fifth child was born, but all of her children survived and grew up with the attention and support of their two uncles. H.G. Kump's two brothers-in-law also died early, leaving the Governor and his brother Kerr to help provide for and educate their eight nieces and nephews. Families had to do their own fostering in the early 20th century.
Now the West Virginia foster care system is in crisis, with nearly 6,000 youngsters needing care. Many paid foster parents do not seem to be able to connect with their foster children effectively, and the state no longer has a facility for children after removal from their homes. Children are housed in hotels and out-of-state facilities. This situation might be resolved more effectively if researchers studied the effects of providing guidance and support for foster parents who are related to the children, and offering therapy that would stimulate more nurturing adult networks to support relationships.