Winnie My Life in the Institution Author:Jamie Pastor-Bolnick At the core of this book is an account written by a woman who, committed to a state institution at the age of six, spent her life in a struggle for selfhood. Winnie's own words open to the reader the stratified world of retarded men, women and children. Following her death in 1976 at the age of 44, professionals evaluating her case concluded... more » that Winnie, the victim of societal rejection when her parents died, would not have been institutionalized today.
Jamie Pastor Bolnick read the handwritten, 20-odd-page manuscript and decided the story was worth telling. She interviewed the woman and pieced the transcripts together with the original manuscript, changing names and a few details. Of below-average intelligence, Gwynna Sprockett was orphaned as an infant, treated badly by foster parents and committed to an institution at the age of 6. She was brutalized by some of the attendants, but a teacher encouraged her to read and write. She struggled with a mind able to sense its limitations but often incapable of overcoming them. She later died, still in an institution. Winnie Sprockett's voice gives life to this familiar story. Although she could not remember the number of weeks in a year or how to tell time, she had an uncanny memory for details of her life. She was a natural storyteller, dropping easily into dialogue and recounting events expressively. This is a portrait of a damaged but exceptional mind.« less