20 Years Later, Willowbrook Still Impacts Lives
Mental health community to hold
conference Friday at College of Staten Island
Staten Island Advance - Monday, October 08, 2007
It was 37 years ago; just two Saturdays spent working as a Girl
Scout volunteer at Willowbrook State School. But Ellen Percoco
remembers it like it was yesterday.
"It was such a sad place," said Mrs. Percoco, then Ellen Zgardowski
and a seventh-grader at Blessed Sacrament grammar school. "It was
for a community service badge and it was one of my very first
community service experiences. I think that is why it was so
profound."
It was 1970 -- two years before parents who had placed their
children in Willowbrook would file a class-action lawsuit against
the state that would result in sweeping changes in the mental health
field, and 17 years before the doors of Willowbrook would be shut
for good.
On Friday, the mental health community will mark the 20th
anniversary of the closing of Willowbrook, a place that became
synonymous with overcrowding and mistreatment of the disabled. A
conference will be held in the College of Staten Island's Williamson
Theatre at 1 p.m. to mark the occasion.
The other day, Mrs. Percoco of Brighton Heights, now a mother
herself, recalled the children she saw at Willowbrook.
"I folded the laundry and put it away for the aides, but I did get
to talk and play with the children," said Mrs. Percoco. "What I
remember most was their profound sense of sadness; the kids seemed
resigned to being there."
"Some would roll around on the floor in their hospital gowns,"
remembered Mrs. Percoco. "Others were in what I was told were cribs,
but I actually thought they were in cages. They were in these tall,
metal-barred cribs on wheels and they would shake the bars so the
crib would move or rock.
"I was told they were in there because if they weren't they would
hurt the other children. They moaned. They were left to their own
devices unless someone was bleeding or crying. Mostly the aides
would just sit there; there didn't seem to be much interaction with
the children. I remember thinking how very sad it was that children
could stay in a place like that. These children had nothing."
Still, said Mrs. Percoco, "Seeing the children of Willowbrook had me
teach my children that if a child is different than you it doesn't
mean that something is wrong with them; it just means that they have
a different perspective on life."
Jean Yulfo, 60, grew up in Willowbrook with her twin sister, Joan,
who died a dozen years ago of cancer.
"We lived there from the age of 4 until we were 19," said Mrs. Yulfo,
now a Dongan Hills grandmother.
Known then as Jean Lisa and Joan Lisa, Mrs. Yulfo said she and her
twin believed their last name was Lisa. She said they later found
paperwork indicating their last name might have been Jaycox.
"I am uncertain about the name," said Mrs. Yulfo. "I am not certain.
That's the worst thing."
"We were told that we had a brother and a sister there, too, but we
didn't know them," she added.
Mrs. Yulfo is reticent about discussing what led her and her sister
to be placed in Willowbrook, but she said neither she nor her twin
were ever diagnosed with a developmental disability.
"Growing up there was terrible," said Mrs. Yulfo, her voice growing
soft, her face clouding over, her eyes closing at the memory. "They
treated us terrible. I was thrown to the floor. I was slapped. I was
hit. People treat you where you come from."
She is reluctant to remember.
"They had us graduate from the school; they had us walk down the
aisle," said Mrs. Yulfo. "I remember thinking, 'Why?' Graduation
came, but no one came to see me. That was the worst day of my life."
"I've been told I could write a book," added Mrs. Yulfo. "But I
can't write all that well."
(Friday's Willowbrook conference is free and open to the public.
Call CSI at 718-982-2365 for further information.) .
By
Judy L. Randall
Reprinted here with permission
from the
