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The Ukiah Daily Journal

September 19, 2009

Remembrance Day is for those who died in asylums

By: Tiffany Revelle

Restoring names to people who died in state mental hospitals is part of the purpose of a Remembrance Day ceremony slated for Monday at 12:15 p.m. on the southwest corner of the Ukiah cemetery o Low Gap Road.

This will be the seventh annual statewide ceremony to honor and restore dignity to those who lived and died in state hospitals, institutions and developmental centers throughout the state.

The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors adopted a proclamation Tuesday, marking Monday as the day of remembrance.

Patients with mental and developmental disabilities were separated from their communities and committed to state institutions "for a variety of reasons, many of which would not be considered acceptable today," according to the proclamation.

The state buried more than 45,000 patients who died in the facilities in unmarked graves and in mass graves. More than 1,600 people who died in confinement at the Mendocino State Hospital in Ukiah between 1892 and 1972 were buried locally in unmarked graves.

The California Memorial Project, launched in 2001, aims to restore the names and histories of those patients.

Manzanita Services Peer Support Specialist Kate Howe coordinates the annual remembrance day in Mendocino County.

"This is a part of the beginning of a healing from a tragedy," Howe said. "This particular day is going to be related to the Mendocino mental hospital, which is now (The City of) Ten Thousand Buddhas, to give you some understanding of where it was and is now."

Julie Wood shared her experience as a patient at Mendocino State Hospital 50 years ago, when she stayed at the hospital for more than four months.

"I lived through it, I survived it," Wood said. "I remember the old snake pit stuff, when insane asylums were awful, awful, terrible. And part of the state hospital here was, but I was in the transition time," she said.

She currently volunteers, and is involved with the remembrance project.

"I want to thank everyone for recognizing those of us who survived, and those of us who didn't, and giving us faces and names," Wood said.

Supervisor John McCowen said a plaque is expected to be dedicated next year with the names of those buried locally.

A reception is scheduled after the ceremony at the United Methodist Church in Ukiah.