WEBVTT - Threads 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:10.120 And the patients would come out on the front lawn. 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:12.799 But as the city moved that way, they had to 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:17.040 bar the poor chests because they became a buggy problem. 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:22.400 Well, they would get out and show out on the 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:25.239 lawn and people would stop riding around. 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:30.160 Oh no, no horse than Puggy. 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:34.080 Over the course of the Old Asylum's life, it grew, 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:39.720 Jackson grew around it, its story unspooled threads, joining the 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:45.720 tapestry of ever expanding daily life in central Mississippi. Back 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:48.600 at the State Hospital Museum, Donna Brown and Kathy Denton 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:51.240 showed us around a room full of photos and memorabilia 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:52.479 from the Old Asylum. 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:54.520 There are a lot of stories too. 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:57.800 If you look closely at the picture, you can see 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:02.400 there's a road that turned here in circles up close 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:06.720 to the building Sunday afternoons and Jackson, it was a 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:11.360 common fun thing to do to go picnic on the 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:15.160 grounds and watch the crazy people. 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.160 After the Old Asylum shuddered its doors when its buildings 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.200 were torn down in the fifties, the stories died down 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:28.679 for a bit too, But with the rediscovery of the 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:32.360 Asylum Hills Cemetery, the lore is also coming back to 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:37.480 Life Asylum Hills. Lady Gibson even has her own well. 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:41.759 The first time I heard about the Old Asylum was 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:45.399 from my mother. My mother is still with us, she 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:50.040 is ninety five years old, but she remembers as a 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:56.280 child driving through the gravel driveway in front of the 0:01:56.360 --> 0:02:02.160 asylum on Sunday afternoons and waving at the patients. We've 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:05.440 had lots of people who've come from the community and said, yeah, 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:07.040 oh yeah, that was like the place to go. 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:16.080 For the most part, the stories that survive are the 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:18.880 ones that lean into the Southern Gothic of it all. 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:21.600 Here's Billy Wayne's cousin. 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:27.079 I knew that the Old Asylum was there because I've 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:30.919 talked to friends that are a little older than I 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:36.760 am that remember the asylum. I remember one of my 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:39.960 friends I never will forget. He would walk past it 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:45.600 some times at night and hear those poor souls. I 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:48.960 remember that's expression he used. I could hear those poor 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:55.280 souls wailing in the asylum. 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:57.760 The final years of the Asylum did not leave a 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:02.239 great impression on Jackson. That shifting Yazoo Clay had done 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:05.200 a number on the Foundation, which was then doing a 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:09.639 number on the walls and ceilings. Plaster was literally crumbling 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:14.160 onto the patient buds, but repairs were out of the question. 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:17.720 Any state funds flowed to the new state hospital being built, 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:19.120 the one out in Whitfield. 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:23.600 Whitfield was funded by the legislature in nineteen twenty six. 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:29.400 Then the depression happened. Then there were shortages of everything, 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:32.760 you know, and so the building of Whitfield and the 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:36.240 opening of Whitfield was delayed until nineteen thirty five. So 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:38.880 you had from nineteen twenty six to nineteen thirty five 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:41.840 when they were trying not to put any more money 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:46.360 into this building that was literally condemned by the time 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:47.520 the patients moved out. 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:51.560 When the new State Hospital Whitfield opened its stores, the 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:54.520 old asylum shut its own and there wasn't a lick 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:55.800 of overlap between the two. 0:03:56.720 --> 0:04:04.200 The old asylum closed, Field opened, completely new staff, completely 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:09.000 new department of the Mississippi government. It was not like 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:12.960 it was a legacy institution. The last twenty five hundred 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:18.279 patients from here went to Whitfield, but that's the only 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.719 transfer that happened. It was a brand new operation. We 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:26.040 had this huge institution that operated for eighty years and 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:29.800 then it remained derelict for twenty and then the University 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:35.039 Medical Center comes on and there's no transfer of institutional memory. 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:42.000 The buildings were torn down, the cemetery remained derelict up 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:46.080 on the hill, unattended, forgotten, unused, unneeded. 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:49.040 Whitfield was about as blank of a slate as you 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:51.880 could find. If there were a way for the state 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:53.680 to sanction forgetting, this was it. 0:04:54.560 --> 0:05:00.760 Many of us, most of us in medicine, have sufficient egos, 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:05.160 and we all believe that history starts with our arrival. 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:12.000 So the medical school opened and it was churning from 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:16.440 the very beginning, patient care and research and education, and 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:21.160 no time to look back. And we're building this brand new, 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:25.240 modern medical center and we're looking forward. We have no 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:28.960 interest in preserving old, crumbling history. 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:34.880 Well except the old crumbling history is right there, a 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:39.719 cemetery taking up twelve acres of this town. So the 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:44.080 real question is what kind of space will Jackson make 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:50.000 for the people interred there. I'm Larison Campbell and this 0:05:50.680 --> 0:06:03.800 is under Yazoo Clay. When we sat down with Leta 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:06.680 for one of our mini chats, her phone rang mid interview. 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:09.800 Most days that would be a pretty big bummer, but 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.200 not this time. The person on the other end of 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:15.640 the line was Kimberly Jackson, a descendant. 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:23.120 Hey, Kimberly, I am fine. So I was calling you 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:30.600 because I have found some information about SINNI and I'm 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:33.200 going to send you the forms that you need to 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:38.799 fill out to get it. It's some patient records and anyway, 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:42.880 it's pretty self explanatory. But I also wanted to ask you. 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:47.480 Kim is a lot of things to a lot of people. 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:50.320 She's a school counselor right now pre k. 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:54.760 Through second grade. They thank you a superstar. Every day 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:57.520 you is like walking on a red carpet every day. 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:01.719 She's a caregiver for her mother, for her aunt, and 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:05.159 for her uncle. Chem is dedicated to doing it all. 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:07.800 That was clear even when we were trying to pin 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:08.880 her down for an interview. 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:15.040 Time there's a yes, there is actually a count on 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:16.360 the third floor, but. 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:18.480 I mean it's oh really That might be. 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:20.480 The day we met her, she'd driven a little over 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.880 an hour from her home in Carthage, Mississippi. She was 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:25.840 in Jackson to bring her aunt and uncle to their 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:29.160 doctor's appointments, and so that's where we did the interview 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:32.760 on a couch outside the doctor's office, right next to 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:35.800 the vending machines and the elevator bank. So if you 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:38.320 hear a clank or a ding, no, you know this 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:40.320 is good. And that might be the fourth floor up there, 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:41.880 in which case it doesn't look like they have as 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:46.640 much area as we do. So perfect, okay, So thank 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:47.840 you for making this drive. 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:48.800 Yeah, welcome out. 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:51.360 Like I said, my aunt and uncle and they're on 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.720 the third floor. Yeah, they're right in there. Oh that's perfect. Okay, great, and. 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:56.600 My aunt's she swooped in for a hug. 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:57.000 Hello. 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:00.040 I clocked her light pink long sleeve shirt with the 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:06.400 logan love yourself. It's abundantly clear that to Kim, family 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:10.600 is everything. Almost straight from the moment we arrived, she 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:13.720 wax poetic about a whole slew of relatives from her 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:15.400 grandmother's dating history. 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:19.120 One gentleman from the community said, I'm going to walk 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:22.800 you home, but let me run out here to get 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:23.320 a lamp. 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:27.840 You know, to her great uncle's fashion choices. 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:30.720 You wore these nickobaccas and thought that he was looking 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:36.120 real shop with these Nicobocca pants, you know. So they 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:40.400 would laugh and they jogan, But you think you something, 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:42.280 But these Nicobaca's on you know what. 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:44.640 The cloth of her life is made up of these 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:48.360 memories of these people. But like all the descendants we 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:52.200 spoke to, there was that familiar blank spot, a rent 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:57.439 in the fabric. So if you would, yeah, I mean, 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:01.200 tell tell us about your it's your great. 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:06.320 Grandmother, right, So do you know about her? Uh? Bits 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:06.880 and pieces? 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:10.200 So uh, since all of this has occurred, I found 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:15.440 out a little bit more. Uh so I always we 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:20.319 were always told her name was Zenny. She married my grandfather, 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:22.920 Monroe g and they. 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:23.800 Had four children. 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:27.760 They had three boys and then a girl, which was 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:36.880 my grandmother Marie. So they lived in Conway, and my 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:43.160 great grandmother was born and raised in another community in 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:47.800 Leek County called Pilgrim Rest. And so all of a 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:52.320 lot of her you know, family members uh are buried 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:56.400 in the Pilgrim Rest Church cemetery. 0:09:57.360 --> 0:09:58.880 Except for her, But I'll get to that. 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:05.439 Pilgrim Rest was a small community not too far away. 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:11.079 Zenny's whole family was nearby. But then things went south 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:15.559 for Zenny. Her mom died. It shook everyone in the family, 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:19.520 but no one more than Zenny, a young mother herself. 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:24.280 And as the story goes, when her mother passed away, 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:33.160 she became, I guess, so despondent with grief that she 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:39.600 slowly started to her mental health started to decline. My 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:42.800 grandmother always said that she had a nervous breakdown. 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:47.600 Kim's grandmother was Jenny's youngest child, not even ten years 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:48.600 old yet. 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:54.680 One cousin said that she would leave home. She would 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:57.480 put my grandma on a hip and take off walking, 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:00.640 and you know, people be like, know where is it? 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:02.680 You know, looking for where is it? And she would 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:07.040 hit a ride going to Pilgrim Rest. She would just 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:09.440 take off, woo, did a ride, go to Pilgrim Rest, 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:11.800 you know, hitch ragg get on, you know, and come back. 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:16.520 They said she'd always come back, She'd always come back. 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:21.280 My great grandfather was able to get her admitted to 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:22.560 Asylum Hill. 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:32.360 But Kem's great grandfathers and his husband, Monroe, remained devoted. 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:37.040 His wife was his wife in sickness or in health. 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:41.800 According to my cousins, my great grandfather would to visit 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:44.400 her at least three times. 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:46.720 And that must have been a hard track. 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:51.480 Exactly that Now that touched me because when I think 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:57.520 about now, this is Mississippi in the nineteen late night 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:01.640 the late teens, you know, him traveling either by wagon 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:04.120 or a very. 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:05.320 A model TA kind of a car. 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:08.160 Who knows, you know, to think about him getting back 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:10.160 and forth three times. 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:13.280 Or he loved her. You can't tell me you didn't 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:13.719 love her. 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:18.560 He was if he was determined to visit her three times. 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:20.760 Yeah, he meant to bring her home. 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:28.120 Until he for some reason, thought that he couldn't. He 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:31.800 and her family were thinking, of course, that this was 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:36.160 going to be a short term stay, you know. And 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:40.040 so her brother said to my great grandfather, said, when. 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:43.520 Are you bringing this inning home? And he said, I 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:44.079 don't know. 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:47.520 Every time I go, she gets further and further away 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:57.439 from me. While she was at asylum, hell, she passed away. 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:01.720 So as far as I know, it was through a telegram. 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:04.839 Is how he found out that she passed. As far 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:07.439 as I know, he was not able to see her 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:11.040 before she was buried. You know, they thinking she's going 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:13.640 somewhere for a little while, and she never comes back. 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:18.000 You know, I my heart, my heart has gone out 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:19.760 to them, and I can tear her up now thinking 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:21.840 about that that. You know, you're thinking she you know 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:24.120 she'll be back. You know she's gonna get some help 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:30.440 and she'll be back. And so my grandmother wasn't even 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:36.480 she wasn't ten, and the last memory she had of 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:40.000 her mother was her making her a birthday cake. 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:56.160 The largest art museum in the state, the Mississippi Museum 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:58.880 of Art connects Mississippi to the world and the power 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:02.720 of art to the power community. Located in downtown Jackson, 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:06.280 the museum's permanent collection is free to the public. National 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:10.200 and international exhibitions rotate throughout the year, allowing visitors to 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:13.959 experience works from around the world. The gardens at Expansive 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.240 Lawn at the Mississippi Museum of Art are home to 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:19.840 art installations and a variety of events for all ages. 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:24.160 Plan your visit today at MS Museum art dot org. 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:32.680 That's MS Museum art dot org. The Southern ethos, the 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:38.160 reverence for the grave ran deep in Kim's family. Cemeteries 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:40.400 have been part of her life since childhood. 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:44.040 My grandma was being on visiting cemeteries. It was it 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:45.320 was a whole thing for. 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:48.360 Them to have the churches to get together and clean 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:51.080 the cemetery. You know, mowld the lawn of the cemetery 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:52.440 changed out the flowers. 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:54.800 That was the whole thing. That was a day set 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:57.000 aside to do that kind of thing. 0:14:57.400 --> 0:14:59.560 Look, I'm we going, I went to I'm a little kid, 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.760 I'm at all the funerals. It felt like, you know, 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:06.520 you know, there was there was always obituaries and always, 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:09.920 of course, like I said, stories to be told, and 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:12.760 but hers was always that sense of unknown. 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:17.720 Kim's grandmother had no grave to point to, just one memory, 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:20.880 one story of her mother she could pass down to 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:21.880 her own children. 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:25.280 It was a happy memory, but there was only one 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:30.440 memory of her baking this cake for her birthday. And 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:36.600 to then go from that to news of her, of 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:41.680 her passing, it's just just a lot of gaps and 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.200 a sense of a little bit sense of longing. 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:44.400 Now. 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:46.640 She would never really dwell on it too long, Like 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:49.320 if she mentioned her, she would say a little something 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:51.880 and that was it. So she wasn't she didn't ever 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:54.440 shy away from it. But there was just always this 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:57.440 sense of that's all there is, you know, that like 0:15:57.480 --> 0:15:59.760 there was this is the end of the store, there's 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:01.720 nothing else but love. 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:02.960 But what Twain's are saying. 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:05.080 I mean, that's really interesting because I feel like we've 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:08.120 talked to so many there, you know, a fair number 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:10.840 of people at this point who had relatives who were 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:13.440 in there, And it's kind of the reactions I've heard 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:16.000 have been a little bit different in that I think 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:18.160 there's a lot of shame associated. 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:21.520 But they never had it. They never tried to keep 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:22.200 it a secret. 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:24.680 It wasn't a secret that she went to Whitfield, as 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:26.080 they called it. 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:27.480 It was never they never did. 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:31.520 Never did they, And I will say that, yeah, it 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:33.040 wasn't something they tried to had. 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:35.520 They were always very upfront about it. 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:40.440 Her family never tried to hide her. But Zenny got 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:48.640 lost anyhow. Part of the confusion was bureaucratic. In Mississippi 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:52.120 these days, when people say asylum, they mean Whitfield, the 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:56.680 current state hospital. Ken and her family, like many Mississippians, 0:16:57.160 --> 0:16:59.880 never even knew there was an old asylum in Jackson. 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:02.880 As time went on, they called it Whitfield. So in 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:06.120 our minds, we're thinking that she was buried where Whitville 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:07.680 is out in Pearl somewhere. 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:11.640 So when Kim went to search for her great grandmother's records, 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:16.080 she contacted Whitfield. Every time they just say they had 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:22.280 no records of Zenny because Zenny was never there for Kim. 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.879 It felt like the asylum had just swallowed her hole, 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:34.440 but Zenny hadn't vanished. She was closer than anyone knew. 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:38.960 My grandmother attended Tougaloo, So when I think about it, 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:42.640 she was not that far from where her mother was buried, 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:47.440 and she had no idea, no idea that that's where 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:48.200 she was buried. 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:51.960 Tugalu College is in Jackson, just six miles from the 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:56.600 old asylum, and for decades, Zenni's daughter and then her 0:17:56.640 --> 0:18:01.080 granddaughter and finally her great granddaughter has right by that 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:12.879 cemetery like ships in the night until remember back in 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:16.120 episode two that pr road show that the Asylum Hill 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:19.560 project went on the one where they spoken rotary clubs 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:20.679 and put out newspaper. 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:26.280 Adds, I see an ad in the Carthaginian, which is 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:32.720 our local newspaper, and it mentioned that the following people were. 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:36.040 Believed to have been buried. 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:42.639 At Asylum Hill, and I see her name, and so 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:45.400 it had a contact number. It turned out to be lighter, 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:50.439 and so that's how I found out. 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:55.120 You have a watch roots. You know how Alex Halen. 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:58.600 When he made it to Africa and he went to 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:00.880 the he went. 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:04.359 To the to the village where Cooter Kintate was born, 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:06.760 and he was like, I found you. You know, That's 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:08.560 how I felt. I was like, oh my god, we 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:09.160 found her. 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:12.879 I found him, and I let my family know, you know, 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:14.480 and you know the whole you know. 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:16.199 It was like, oh my go I told Mama first. I 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:16.720 told her. 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:18.480 I was like, you know, Grandma's in the name in 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:22.960 the paper, you know, and uh yeah, So it was 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:30.440 I felt a sense of especially a sense of relief. 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:34.199 But just to know that, you know, it's just I 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:37.320 was just so it was just mind boggling that to 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:44.520 think that, to see her name in print, to know that, 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:48.400 oh there's more to the story. I'm able to fill 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:52.040 in the gaps, just mind blowing because think about this, 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:54.399 by this time, my mama was in her late seventies, 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:58.760 you know, finding all of this out, and so, like 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:01.440 I said, all of a sud sudden zen, it went 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:05.440 from being you know, a story to you a real 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:08.119 you know, a person you think about, a person with 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:12.439 a whole entire life, you know, not just you know, 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:17.360 creating a home life with you know, her grandfather and 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:19.280 you know, having my you know, because basically it was 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:22.840 when they when they heard of Grandma's in it. It was 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:25.199 the same way she told it to us. You know, 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:27.879 there was there was no extra stories, you know what 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:31.520 I'm saying. And so to go from wow, so you 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:35.280 know there was an actual they go from being her 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:41.040 being admitted to the hospital to her dying. No no 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:43.160 news of what happened while she was. 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:44.080 There, no nothing. 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:50.119 What is it about connecting like these dots? 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:54.040 What what does it as the person who's still alive today? 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:58.639 Like what does it give you? And for lack of 0:20:58.640 --> 0:20:59.920 a better word, completeness. 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:10.600 My people always talked about their family, always, both sides, 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:15.280 you know, always was all of this talk about remember 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:18.280 what grandma did, Remember what uncle so and so did, 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.800 her cousin so and so. There was always these stories 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:25.520 always and when it came and so it makes me, 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:27.399 like I said, it makes me give a a sense 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:30.720 of completion in a way finding zen it and I 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:33.639 just really feel like, ah, I got it. 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:37.720 This is what this is? This it it it It 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:38.640 feels me. 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:44.320 To finally know that there was an end to her 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:47.040 story where the hap air said there was an end, 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:52.440 because it didn't. It was just such a mystery, such 0:21:52.480 --> 0:21:55.600 a mystery as to what happened to her, well just 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:58.399 about everybody else, you know. You know, there was a 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:00.480 beginning to the story and there's an end at the store, 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:02.800 and they had they have the whole in, you know, 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:07.159 the whole middle. That wasn't that with her, That was 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:08.000 not that with her. 0:22:11.359 --> 0:22:13.960 Come has something a lot of other descendants have been 0:22:13.960 --> 0:22:17.440 looking for. She can just about point to the spot 0:22:17.560 --> 0:22:18.639 where Zenny is buried. 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:23.119 There's a grove of trees and the grassy area. If 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:25.600 I'm not mistaken, that's where she would have been buried. 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:29.560 I ride by there now and think, you know, she's there. 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:32.480 I think about it as her burial place. You know, 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:35.280 when I drive by, I look out there and I think, 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:38.439 you know there you you know, there she is. And 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:41.520 that's what my grandmother and her siblings did not ever have, 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:44.840 was a sense of there she is, or we can 0:22:44.920 --> 0:22:46.760 go out there and visit her when we would like to, 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:47.960 or drive by. 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:51.320 They did not have that sense at all. They never 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:52.560 knew where she was. 0:22:53.840 --> 0:22:56.600 So come checks in with her. She fills Anny in 0:22:56.720 --> 0:22:58.040 on what's become of her family. 0:22:58.720 --> 0:23:02.439 Now, somebody they your children will raise, would love, so 0:23:02.640 --> 0:23:06.439 you know, don't think that you know, they were just 0:23:06.560 --> 0:23:09.320 out there in the world left to their own devices. No, 0:23:10.359 --> 0:23:12.600 they were raised in the manner you would have want 0:23:12.680 --> 0:23:13.440 them to be raised. 0:23:13.480 --> 0:23:15.040 They were loved in the way that you will want 0:23:15.080 --> 0:23:18.680 them to be loved. We did not ever forget about you. 0:23:18.680 --> 0:23:23.879 You always loved, you always missed. We just did not forget. 0:23:25.200 --> 0:23:26.600 But now we have found. 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:38.080 You come as the poster child for what the Asylum 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:39.880 Hell Project is hoping to pull off. 0:23:40.480 --> 0:23:43.840 I will tell this story anywhere I can. I would 0:23:43.880 --> 0:23:47.199 be happy to. I think the more we get the 0:23:47.240 --> 0:23:51.040 word out, the deeper our engagement will be with the community, 0:23:51.600 --> 0:23:55.000 the more transparent will be, and the more stories that 0:23:55.040 --> 0:23:55.760 will hear. 0:23:55.600 --> 0:23:59.520 Back by the way, Doctor Deadlake says that any descendants 0:23:59.520 --> 0:24:02.399 who may be listening can contact the Asylum Hill Project 0:24:02.480 --> 0:24:05.320 through its website Asylum Hill dot org. 0:24:05.920 --> 0:24:10.280 We'll be happy to talk to them, describe what we're doing, 0:24:11.000 --> 0:24:13.640 engage with them, see if they would like to give 0:24:13.720 --> 0:24:15.000 us a name to look for. 0:24:17.280 --> 0:24:20.399 But of course, the Asylum Hill Project isn't just about 0:24:20.400 --> 0:24:25.159 connecting descendants with information about their loved ones. It's about 0:24:25.200 --> 0:24:29.199 that land, the land that the medical center needs to 0:24:29.280 --> 0:24:34.560 build more vital medical infrastructure, the land currently occupied by 0:24:34.720 --> 0:24:41.359 thousands of former patients, as they've talked to more people 0:24:41.440 --> 0:24:43.760 like him. The folks at Asylum Hill have begun to 0:24:43.800 --> 0:24:47.119 formulate a plan, but it's one that will take time. 0:24:48.040 --> 0:24:51.080 There's the project of sorting archived patient records. 0:24:51.320 --> 0:24:54.520 I think I estimated that it would take five years, 0:24:55.040 --> 0:24:59.240 given our current staffing, to just get everything indexed and separated. 0:25:00.080 --> 0:25:04.200 And of course the cemetery excavations, the process of removing 0:25:04.240 --> 0:25:07.480