I have to go to Court the 4th of September at 4 o'clock.
I sure wish I knew for sure they were going to let me have the kids back. I have a funny feeling about it. I don't think they are.
I have been watching for awhile and have some ideas and a suggestion.
In order to get old medical records from the now closed Ypsilanti State Hospital you need to file a request with the director of mental health in Lansing. They used to call that hospital, 'The Ypsilanti State Hospital For The Criminally Insane'. I mention that just to note that the attitude of the government in Michigan toward the mentally ill was, and is despicable. You would have to make an appointment to see the director to get records. You have to have verifiable proof that you are related to the (ex)patient and a very good reason in the eyes of the director for requesting the info. I know because I needed to do the same thing and have looked into it. I have not actually done it.
I'd like to present a possible scenario, and mind you it is only drawn from my own experience; To be so young and divorced with 3 small children back in the 50's/60's would have been very difficult. Divorce was taboo and a woman with no education supporting those children without any help would have been a monumental task and Michigan winters are cold. Finding dependable daycare alone is extremely difficult even now if you can't afford it. Then too, Ida had health issues. My own grandmother was left in somewhat the same situation in the 50's while my grandfather was in that very same hospital. She walked the streets with 4 children looking for work and a place to live. Welfare programs were not what they are today. The only job she could find was as a barmaid and then she was stigmatized for that. Her life was very hard.
Once Ida's children were taken by the state of Michigan Ida was bound to Michigan in every way if she wanted them back. Otherwise, she may have just taken them all and gone back to Florida where her family could have supported her. Now she had to answer to the State of Michigan and that system was fraught with problems then, and is still a mess even now. Once she had been involved in the state mental health system the courts would always look at her competency as a parent in that light.
I noted in one of her letters that she asks the question, or just as a thought, that she wished she knew if they were going to give her children back to her. It didn't sound to me as if she thought they would. If she knew they weren't would she be making other plans? I personally put my child in foster care when she was 6 months old because I was 19, unmarried, and uneducated. It was the recession of the early 1980's. I did it to try to find work and decide if keeping her would be the best thing for her. While she was in the foster home my phone rang day and night. My relatives were calling me and begging me not to give her up. I didn't have a moments peace and little time to think clearly as I had hoped to do while my child was away. I kept her eventually and still did not get the help the family promised.
I think it's quite possible that Ida made the choice to give up her children thinking they would have a better life. She may have struck a deal with the judge. Adoption can take a few years especially if they can't find the father to sign off on his parental rights. The judge may have withheld naming her competent until the adoption was sealed and the time to withdraw the decision was up. Ida may have felt tremendous shame over her decision and would likely have not wanted to face her family over it. If they were anything like my family she would have paid an extreme emotional price. Trying to do everything the state demands and living under that stress is enough to put you in the hospital. I was a foster parent for 2 years in Oakland County Michigan and I have seen from that perspective how the Michigan system works.
I found Ida's family of origin in the 1945 Florida state census, part of it anyway. The only people listed in the home with her last name were her and her siblings. Where were her parents? There were 12 people living in at that address and most of them were children. One 68 yr old woman, one 38 year old woman, neither of which had the last name Richardson. The Richardson children are all born one right after the other, ages 10, 9, 8, & 6. The other children at that address have different last names and are about the same ages as the Richardsons. Was this a foster home? Did Ida already know how tough life could be?
I believe she has married several times and that is why she can't be found. Since no real police report was filed she could have done many things. With little in the way of records back then she could have easily changed her identity.
To Dan and his family I'd like to say directly that attitudes change over the years and so do family stories and recollections of events. I am so glad that you and your siblings were reunited with your mothers family. If I were going to meet my long lost grandchildren for the first time in almost a lifetime I would probably tell the all the good things I could think of and leave out a lot of the bad. Family lore may offer ideas and make us feel better about some things but verifiable facts are probably going to lead to finding Ida.
Some of the details of Ida's story are fuzzy and I understand it's because Ida has been missing for so long. It would help here if we knew what was verified info and what is conjecture.
I wish you peace.