Winnie’s Preface
to
Winnie: My Life in the Institution
Copyright © 1985, 2010 Jamie Pastor Bolnick
The reason I wrote a book is ’cause of Willy, he’s my sister’s husband. He said I was mentally retarded.
“That’s why you’re in the institution,” he told me. Right in front of my sisters, too.
“Who the hell is mentally retarded? Not me!” I hollered at him. Miriam even got mad, said, “That’s a nice thing to say! Is that the way you treat someone coming to visit for Christmas?”
Willy just said, “I’m sorry that had to come out.”
“Well, you didn’t have to say that while she was here. You made her feel funny in front of everybody.”
And when we was in the kitchen, me and Miriam and Wanda, and Miriam was doing the pies, she told me, “Don’t worry about what Willy said, don’t pay him no heed. Willy likes to hear hisself talk.”
But I was still real mad when I got back to the institution. All I was thinking was, why did he have to go and call me that mean thing? I said to myself, “I’m gonna set down and write a book. ’Cause mentally retarded people can’t write books, so I’ll show Willy just how retarded I am!”
I got a notebook from Mrs. Knopf, pencils, too. It took me a long, long time to write my book. In the nights I set in the bathroom to write ’cause that’s the only place they leave the lights on.
And I told everybody I was writing a book, boy, I let everyone know it. Some of the attendants, they teased me, said I thought I was a big shot ’cause I was writing a book. “Big deal, Winifred’s writing a book,” they said. “It’s going to her head now.” I didn’t care.
My book proves how much I know, proves how smart I am. And anyone who reads my book is gonna say, “Who is this girl? She sure isn’t mentally retarded!”
Now I’m even glad Willy called me retarded. The big mouth. He made me write my book.