Jean Paton and the Struggle to Reform American Adoption

Epilogue

305 Epilogue I have always been certain that we bastards and associates are very important people to society, that our message should therefore be voiced with the greatest clarity and honesty. This I have tried to do, it appears so, with my life. It seems to be almost endless. —Jean Paton [1993–1994] Paton died in 2002 at age ninety-three.Death came unexpectedly,surprising her friends. In relatively good health, she had begun to slow down and take it easy. But in January 1998, Paton experienced what she described as a slight stroke and was rushed to the hospital in her “nightgown and morning wrap,” where she was stabilized for a week. Medical authorities informed her that she had suffered a TIA, a transient ischemic attack, that produced strokelike symptoms but no lasting damage. She was given the medication Cumadin (warfarin), a blood thinner, which is used to prevent blood clots.1 Paton was unfazed by this threat to her health. In the last years of her life, she enjoyed telling her friends, “My doctor says to me ‘you can make it into the hundreds.’”2 Still, in thinking back about the causes of her stroke, she mused that beyond the fact that she was growing old, part of her illness was a result of “the accumulation of what it is like to have to work hard to overcome an ostracism,”never being“permitted to get into‘respectable’ publications.”3 She believed that to avoid further complications to her health she had“to lessen my intensity, if that is possible” and was glad that her companion, June Schwantes, had spent a lifetime as a professional nurse.4 Around this time, sensing her mortality perhaps, Paton decided to draw up her will. She left all of the assets of Orphan Voyage, including her books and correspondence,to her close friend Molly Johnson,stipulating that Johnson was to maintain these resources or place them in a suitable archive interested in preserving them. All of her other possessions she left to June. Paton included a living will, publicly stating that she did“not wish to be maintained in a vegetative state.”5 In 2000, however, Paton reported that her doctor considered her 306 jean paton and the struggle to reform american adoption “close to the picture of health.”6 When people were told her age,“they drop their jaws in disbelief.”7 In her last years, Paton found some time for activities unconnected with adoption reform. One of her chief enjoyments was sitting in her backyard. A neighbor regularly mowed her front yard, but Paton forbade him from touching the grass behind her house. Much to her delight, the yard quickly became overgrown with plant life. Wild vegetation abounded, with “a specially lovely grass about four feet tall, and lovely to look at.” Paton researched it and discovered it was Indian Grass. She would cut bunches of the flowering stalks, bring them into the house, and enjoy a long-lasting bouquet. The ninety-year-old Paton “loved sitting out back and just watching things grow.”8 Not one for formal religion ,she nevertheless joined a Presbyterian church in 1999.Writing to adoption activist Betty Allen, Paton explained why she had not joined a church before this time. “I have found that the theology needed by orphans is far removed from some of the older ways of looking at things. Christianity belongs to us, does it not? Who are all these legitimate people who have taken it over?” She characterized it as“a small church,just the right size for my tastes,”presided over by a liberal pastor. Although Paton worried that the church authorities desired to acquire another ten acres and build a larger structure, she was content to attend this“warm congregation” as long as it remained as it was. She justified her decision to join by declaring that“I have seen an immense correlation between search for parents and search for God. When we forbid one, we discourage the other.”9 She also continued to write poetry and found time to sculpt in clay, which was“really my true love.”10 Still, most of Paton’s time in those last years was occupied by some aspect of adoption reform. Spurred by her desire to leave a historical legacy, she spent much time sorting and organizing her vast correspondence and files. In part, this work was done to prepare her archive to mail the bulk of it to me, so that...