Key to Patricia (Patsy) Harman's Nonfiction Memoir "Arms Wide Open"

 Key to Patsy Harman’s “Arms Wide Open.” Patsy's book is like a "roman-a-clef." It's a mix of fiction and non-fiction, with the characters' names changed and some actions and places slightly fictionalized.

These are my best guesses:

Patsy Patsy Harman, who I knew circa 1974 as Patsy Sun, partner at that time with Bob Sun, now known as Robin Wilson.

Mica Kaya, son of Patsy and Bob Sun.

Tom Tom Harman, now married to Patsy

Mara Wendy Rawlins

Benny Steve Tuck

Stacy         Robin Wilson, known circa 1974 as Bob Sun

Kaitlin Kerry Grant (later married to Tim Jenkins)

Tall Terry Tim Jenkins, Winona, MN, friend and classmate of Kenny Przybylski.

Tristan John Meyer. Close friend of Barb Siarca.

Annie Barb Siarca, of Willowick, Lake County, Ohio. Now in Montana.

Colin Chuck Matthei, one of the greatest Peacemakers.

From the North Chicago suburbs.

Shanti Diane. From the Dakotas. She gave me her old junker green Dodge, mentioned in the book, on page 103, Chapter 2.

Bro. Lenny Kenny Przybylski, mentioned only briefly on p. 128

Rachel Short, stocky fiddle-playing Jewish girl,

Not a great fiddle player back in 1975.

• Patsy and Tom currently live in West Virginia.

• Wendy and Steve also live in West Virginia.

• Robin Wilson still lives near Spencer, West Virginia.

• Kerry and Tim live near Westby, Wisconsin. I've visited them on the way to Montana.

Kenny, Chuck, and Diane are deceased. Chuck died of thyroid cancer. Diane also died of cancer.

Patsy Harman's Novel, "The Midwife of Hope River"

I just finished reading Patsy Harman's debut novel, "The Midwife of Hope River." The appearance of this book is especially exciting for me because I knew Patsy and many of her friends in the 1970s (including Tom Harman, Kenny Przybylski, Timmy Jenkins, Wendy Rawlins Tuck, and many others). Patsy has published two other outstanding books in the past few years. In 2009 she published "The Blue Cotton Gown: A Midwife's Memoir." Then in 2012 she came out with "Arms Wide Open: A Midwife's Journey." I loved "Arms Wide Open" because for me it was a kind of puzzle trying to figure out who was who (she disguised people's names and identities except for her and her husband Tom Harman). I think "Arms Wide Open" is a major contribution to the literature and history of the peace movement and the communitarian movement (Patsy and Tom established communities in Batavia, Ohio, and Spencer West Virginia; I lived in the Batavia house after the communards left; and I visited the Spencer community on two or three occasions).

"The Midwife of Hope River" is fictional, set in West Virginia of  1930 (with flashbacks to other times and places). But like all good fiction, the book is "truer than true." and taps into archetypal reality. You really care about the characters--Patience Murphy, Bitsy, the veterinarian Daniel, and the many women that Patience served as a midwife.

I am astonished at Patsy's skill as a writer. You can't help but wonder how such incredible talent emerged so late in life. I am reminded of a letter that Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote to Walt Whitman:

"I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start." 

I don't know what Patsy's foreground was. Maybe it was writing letters or diary entries or journals. Whatever it was, it has prepared Patsy for an extraordinary career rather later in life than we normally see.

Hurray for Patsy Harman! Hurray for these wonderful books!

Dorothy Day Article on Ernest and Marion Bromley and the Cincinnati Peacemakers

I've been reading Patsy Harman's book "Arms Wide Open," and it made me think about some of the characters in the book that I knew who were involved in a historic victory for the peace movement. Dorothy Day wrote about it:

 
"Bromley Eviction Halted"
By Dorothy Day
The Catholic Worker, September 1975, 3. 

As we go to press it gives me great joy to write of a victory on the peace front, a victory achieved by the valiant work of the younger members of the peace movement in the United States, which has long known the patient and long-suffering work of such bodies as the War Resisters and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, not to forget, to speak modestly, of the Catholic Worker. As of now, it looks as though our friends, the Bromleys, will not be evicted from the Gano Peacemaker house in Cincinnati, and that the sale of the house, which took place this last summer, will be annulled. Among others, credit can be given to Peggy Scherer, who, in addition to her manual labor here at the farm in Tivoli this past year, had continued her close collaboration with Chuck Matthei in Washington and other Peacemakers around the country. And Lee LeCuyer, who is a tireless worker at First Street, has also leafleted and picketed both in Cincinnati and New York. These are the ones who helped lead the movement which achieved this victory. Ernest and Marion Bromley's patient hard work--picketing, leafleting, resisting, speaking the truth--has not gone unnoticed.

It is a lesson for us all in the peace movement that gentle pressure, constant hard work, a faithful, straightforward--one might even say respectful--adherence to the Scriptural command to love our opponents and to exercise the virtue of hope even when all seems hopeless, offer a great example of the pure means to achieve our ends. Jacques Maritain impressed this use of pure means upon us as in the earliest days of the Catholic Worker. This victory also gives us all a sense of joyful gratitude, not only for the hard work of the young people, but even for those in government office who can respond, as they seem to have, to these persistent, though gentle pressures. Let us pray that this "little" victory will give courage to others around the country to take a stand, which involves a real commitment to the "voluntary poverty" we all talk so much about.

[This text is not copyrighted. However, if you use or cite this text please indicate the original publication source and this website (Dorothy Day Library on the Web at http://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/). 

Suggested citation:
Day, Dorothy. "Bromley Eviction Halted". The Catholic Worker, September 1975, 3. The Catholic Worker Movement. http://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/Reprint2.cfm?TextID=556]

Patricia (Patsy) Harman's book "Arms Wide Open"

I am about 50 pages into Patsy Harman's book, Arms Wide Open: A Midwife's Journey. The book was published in 2011 by Beacon Press. It is a very very good book!

I met Patsy about 38 years ago, when she was a hippy and peace agitator. I can't say I ever knew her very well. But I did visit the communes in Batavia, Ohio, and Spencer, West Virginia where she lived. I knew her husband, Dr. Tom Harman (I can hardly believe Tom's a physician!), and many of her friends: Kenny Przybylski, Wendy Rawlins Tuck, Tim Jenkins, Chuck Matthei, and so many more. I even lived in the ragged Batavia farmhouse after this group left for their West Virginia adventure (Rick Anderson was my house mate)..

To me the book reads like a "roman a clef," names of the characters changed to protect the innocent and guilty. The only actual names I think Patsy is using are her own name and her husband Tom's name.

So far the book has drama and tension--necessary ingredients to keep us reading. And I find the sentences well-crafted, almost at times like poetry. I keep wondering how Patsy learned to write so beautifully in a life that has been so full (and at times so hard).

Patsy has one other memoir out, The Blue Cotton Gown: A Midwife's Memoir (Beacon Press, 2009), and a novel, The Midwife of Hope River (William Morrow, 2012). I am going to read all of these books. I am so excited to see her talent blossom out like this.