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269 28 Children Are to Love —and when we pass a cemetery, we both hold our breath alike, like twins, even when we’re not together. —Ruth Krauss, I’ll Be You and You Be Me (1954) In the fall of 1989, Dave’s studio was empty again.When Nina Stagakis visited, Ruth asked whether she and her family could move in, living there rent-free in exchange for serving as her caretakers. Stagakis realized that having the five members of her family living in a single room would be impractical. So Ruth placed another ad in the paper.1 The ad was answered by Joanna Czaderna, a Polish immigrant who was seven months pregnant at the time.Although she was employed, she was having difficulty finding a place to live because landlords refused to rent to a pregnant woman. But when she knocked on the door of 24 Owenoke, Ruth opened it and said,“Oh, welcome! So, where is your stuff?” Czaderna and her husband, Janusz, became a part of the household, followed by their daughter, Bianca, who arrived in December 1989. Needing to care for her newborn as well as her mentally unstable husband, Czaderna was unable to work, and she began to worry about how she would afford the rent. Though she did not raise the matter, Ruth understood and offered to let the Czadernas stay for free if Joanna would help around the house. The younger woman gratefully agreed.2 Ruth’s other friends wondered how she would adapt to having an infant in the household, but much to their surprise, she enjoyed Bianca’s company. A very easygoing baby, Bianca would play quietly next to her mother and Ruth, and when the girl got older, she would crawl over and sit in the eighty-nineyear -old author’s lap, where Ruth would hug her“little angel.”Ruth would also read her books to Bianca, the grandchild she never had.3 Joanna Czaderna became Ruth’s confidant and chauffeur. Traveling in Ruth’s little Honda, they began to visit the places Ruth had lived and worked— the Rowayton house, the schools where had interviewed children. She finally 270 Children Are to Love became able to talk about Dave without being overcome by grief. Her face lighting up, Ruth described Dave as a gentleman who treated her like a princess . Czaderna was surprised:“I just never heard anyone speaking with such a love about another person, and especially coming from her, it was even more powerful to me.”4 Returning to one of her favorite childhood activities, Ruth began making books for her own amusement—writing the story, drawing the pictures, and sewing the pages together with yarn. In one of these stories, a variation on “Love Song for Elephants” from I’ll Be You and You Be Me, she wrote of a stuffed elephant who grows old, gets worn out, and is thrown in the garbage. A little girl finds the sad elephant, takes him home, and repairs him.5 In July 1992, Ruth’s good health suddenly deserted her, and she took to her bed, requiring round-the-clock care. Nurses came in for a few hours each day, but Czaderna became her primary caregiver. Helplessness devastated Ruth, and she fought to lift herself out of bed, though she lacked the strength. Her body was failing, but her will remained strong.6 Friends and fans came to visit. Barbara Lans, Lillian Hoban, Morton Schindel, and Maureen O’Hara came regularly. Maurice Sendak visited several times, and Shel Silverstein visited once. Ruth began giving things away.When Dan Richter stopped by, she gave him some of Dave’s books—Boswell’s Life of Johnson and a book on seventeenth-century thought.7 Another regular visitor, Janet Krauss, was struck by Ruth’s humor and defiance . When Janet mentioned that she was going to attend a poetry festival , Ruth asked,“A poverty festival?”“No, a poetry festival,” Janet replied.“Oh, those things,” Ruth laughed, enjoying the misheard phrase. After sitting at Ruth’s bedside and noticing her fist, Janet composed a poem comparing Ruth to“an aged Barbie doll / with flowing white hair,”and asks,“Why do you never let go / let your hand fly open? / A fist of anger / or defiance / against your still life.”Bianca and Joanna Czaderna also sat with Ruth, but she was hard to comfort . She was frustrated, imprisoned by a body she could no longer control. She ultimately stopped fighting and...

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