Photoessay #1469 - Encephalitis Lethargica

Over two years ago, I wrote about the mystery of Dennis' grandmother who was institutionalized for most of her life. Nobody would talk. My mother in law said 'she had no mother'; she was raised by her father with other female relatives helping out. When I asked them or older relatives, lips were sealed though Cousin Alice whispered something about "Sleeping sickness, terrible".

What got me started on this? My writing group's next assignment is "whispering". For a week I pondered what kind of whispering. Me whispering? Somebody whispering to me? Whispering of the trees, god whispering in your ear. What? What> Then I remembered Alice whispering this to me and I was off.

I was shocked to learn (from the cemetery) that Ruth did not die when Lanaya was young, she lived until 1948 when Lanaya was 21 years old. She was long institutionalized. Reports conflict. Was Lanaya allowed to see her mother? Dennis thinks that Lanaya and Jim visited her after their marriage in 1946. But Ruth was gone, never spoken of, tragic.

As I discussed in an earlier post I think that Ruth may have been a victim of encephalitis lethargica, an epidemic in the 1910s and 1920s which affected maybe a million people in the US. Nobody knows what causes it. If it happens again, watch out. Some evidence of connections to the influenze epidemic of 1928. Many patients then developed parkinsonism symptoms. Remember Oliver Sacks and "Awakenings!, those folks.

I don't know if that's true, I'm guessing. But I started poking around today and foundd that there are records for her at Western State Hospital from 1935-48 and we can receive them if Dennis signs a form. Also, I knew that Ruth was institutionalized some in California when Lanaya was very young. They lived with Antie Ann in California. Dennis thinks it's Napa State Hospital. And I found out today how to get those records.

We could solve some of this mystery!

I looked for some images of encephalitis lethargica and they were all quite disturbing. Some think that encephalitis lethargica was also the source for Sleeping Beauty, first written in 1697. I'm including a nineteenth century work by Burne-Jones from the series of "The Legend of Briar Rose"