R.I.P. Stella! Just as she was found, now she's gone...

[carlscomputers]

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news...lla-dead-at-95

[jtf1972]

Maybe she was better off unfound & alive...

[Bearinabox]

Maybe she was better off unfound & alive...

I think I'd rather be dead than 95 years old, severely mentally ill, and living in a nursing home with no friends or family.

[daddeeo]

It seems like she has some people who cared around
her at the end. Better than dying on the streets.

[RickBeall]

An amazing story.

Read the Fox news comments. The commentors, some of whom grew up with her boys, say she was sold as a bride and forced to move to the USA. Apparently she stayed in Greektown because it was like the home she loved. She had 3 sons, one died at age 40. She lived in the Madison Lenox for 15 years. The Greektown Business association rented an apartment for her, but she preferred to live right on the streets on Greektown. She was moved into a nursing home, she was like a queen smiling on her loyal subjects for a bit, and then back to the nursing home.

I think she must have had some sort of strong spirit that shone through. Call it crazy. Call it Stella of Greektown ... an urban legend that most everyone in Detroit got to participate in.

[dookie joe]

I know this is going to be unpopular here, but I thought the police should have prevented Stella from screaming at Greektown customers the way she did. There are laws against such things; it's called "disturbing the peace," or "disorderly conduct," or any number of statues.

The rumor was, Stella's son was a cop, which supposedly is why the police let her sleep at 1300 Beaubien and turned a blind eye to her antics.

I know a lot of people see her as a "treasure" of Greektown -- but how many out-of-towners who didn't know the area were dissuaded from returning because they had to put up with a mentally disturbed woman screaming at them at the top of her lungs?

Let's put it this way: If there was a homeless black guy who constantly got into the faces of patrons and screamed at them, would the cops smile, shrug and say "Oh, that's just ol' Jim. He's harmless."

It may sound like I'm being cruel, but I'm not. Stella needed to be in an institution, where she could've gotten proper care -- not allowed to roam free in one of Detroit's destination spots, harassing customers and likely discouraging some of them from returning. I cannot fathom how/why she was allowed to do this for so many years.

[screamingfit]

In the 70s, my grade school class took a field trip to Greektown and had a run in with Stella. I remember that she was screaming at us in some weird [[to me at the time) language and chasing after us. She gave up her chase after 1/2 a block or so but it still scared the bejeezus out of us -- many of us never being to Detroit before where the locals are more "colorful" than they were in the far northern suburbs.

On subsequent visits over the years, I would see Stella and my fear of that mad and crazy woman in Greektown turned to sadness.

Bye, Stella. Thanks for making such a lasting impression upon me.

[Blueidone]

It may sound like I'm being cruel, but I'm not. Stella needed to be in an institution, where she could've gotten proper care -- not allowed to roam free in one of Detroit's destination spots, harassing customers and likely discouraging some of them from returning. I cannot fathom how/why she was allowed to do this for so many years.

This may be true...but you have to go back a lot of years to the time when they did away with mental health care in the State of Michigan unless you had insurance or were able to pay for it. This is why we ended up with so many homeless people with mental health issues.

Places like Northville, where mentally disabled people could live and receive treatment were closed down. If the patients didn't have family or someone to take care of them, they ended up on the streets. And, as we see with Stella, some families just did not know how to, or have the means to, take care of them.

No one wants these people roaming the streets, but no one wants to pay enough tax to cover the cost of housing and treating these individuals. I had a great aunt who, lucky for her, worked for a doctor as a domestic until her mental status declined so far that she could not perform her work. Then she came to live with us and my parents [[who had 5 kids to take care of) supported her and cared for her until she got to the point where she needed care around the clock. Her medicaid covered part of the cost of a nursing home, but my family had to cover the rest. This was back in the early 60's before all the changes in the law.

I offer a heartfelt thank you to the people who tried their hardest to take care of her. I pray that God has taken her home and she will spend the rest of eternity in peace and comfort.

[dookie joe]

I totally agree, Blue, and I hope my post didn't seem disrespectful. Unfortunately, since the closure of places like the Lafayette Clinic, the jails are full of people who should instead be getting mental health care. This is a problem jail administrators have complained about many times; they're not set up to be mental health care providers -- they're cops, not doctors!

Even so, I still don't understand from the cops' standpoint why a homeless woman was allowed to harass customers for so many years. If it had been any other homeless person they'd have been shuttled out of there -- and if they kept coming back the cops probably would've locked them up.

[jcole]

Stella predated the closure of the state mental hospitals and clinics by a good 30 years. I agree with DJ above; I don't really understand why she was allowed to live on the streets, in danger of being robbed or raped and treated like a mascot with people throwing her scraps to live on.

[Gary]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who remembers her less than fondly. As far as I'm concerned, she was a public nuisance, I had a couple of unpleasant dealings with her.

That said, I am still glad that her final years were spent off the streets and in an environment where she could be cared for. R.I.P. Stella.

[RickBeall]

Hey, she was thrown in jail numerous times. I guess you could always arrest someone more.

I guess Greektown was like a small town and looked after its own.

Nowadays, the best we could hope for would be for a federal agency to step in, and we would wait in line for our Stella Stimulous dollars.

[English]

Stella was before my time. Wow, I missed out on everything.

[RickBeall]

Don't worry English, we'll find some other crazy people for you to mess with.

[dookie joe]

Hey, she was thrown in jail numerous times. I guess you could always arrest someone more.

I remember the rumor being that she slept at 1300 Beaubien; I don't know whether that qualifies as being thrown in jail.

And I ask the question again: What would the cops have done if it was any other homeless person harassing customers? Yep -- if they threw him/her in jail before and the behavior continued, they would indeed "arrest someone more." And they'd keep on doing it...over and over. They certainly wouldn't just shrug and say, "Well, that's [[fill in the name here)."

For some reason, though, the cops turned a blind eye to what Stella did. I'm not hating on the poor woman; I'm just wondering why the cops acted in a manner that was counter to what they normally would have done.

Were the rumors true that she was the mother of a police officer? I don't know. I've also heard a variation on that rumor: That her cop son had been killed in the line of duty, which is why the police treated her differently than other homeless people.

But them's just rumors...I don't know how true they are.

[RickBeall]

Its a mystery of life Dookie Joe.

[carlscomputers]

I remember the rumor being that she slept at 1300 Beaubien; I don't know whether that qualifies as being thrown in jail.

And I ask the question again: What would the cops have done if it was any other homeless person harassing customers? Yep -- if they threw him/her in jail before and the behavior continued, they would indeed "arrest someone more." And they'd keep on doing it...over and over. They certainly wouldn't just shrug and say, "Well, that's [[fill in the name here)."

For some reason, though, the cops turned a blind eye to what Stella did. I'm not hating on the poor woman; I'm just wondering why the cops acted in a manner that was counter to what they normally would have done.

Were the rumors true that she was the mother of a police officer? I don't know. I've also heard a variation on that rumor: That her cop son had been killed in the line of duty, which is why the police treated her differently than other homeless people.

But them's just rumors...I don't know how true they are.

The rumor that I heard was that she was married to a soldier who got killed in the war & that's why she wore the uniform.
Someone should research her life history & do a movie. Would be perfect for "Lifetime" cable channel!

[RickBeall]

Stella the movie!

It could be done as a musical with Greeks line dancing in the street! --All done Cinema Verite with a gritty urban style, ending with the strobing neon intestines of the casino engulfing Greektown, the street she loved, as her head falls backward into her pillow one last time. Fast forward to the young girl being sold in her Greek villiage into marriage with a stranger, bound for the United States.

[Lowell]

^I have thought in the same direction, but more in the tradition of Greek theater, complete with a chorus of alternately bemused and frightened onlookers as a tragedy unfolds.

There is a device in theater, the name escapes me, of the lone observer who stands off to the side, sometime narrating, sometimes participating -- the Che Guevara character in Evita comes to mind -- that the Stella character would serve. The main thrust would be the destruction of Greektown as a charming tight-knit and personal ethnic setting and its debasement into a faceless, commercial and gambling wasteland --and the source of Stella's madness.

The main drama would feature the Greek merchants who both loathe and fear her as her removal would bring on the wrath of the gods.

RIP Stella you weren't a perfect painting but you didn't lack in color.

[Ravine]

Jeez, Lowell, that was actually a pretty good post. *ahem*
I like the concept. Ya got a point, there. I'm trying to remember the name for that device, too; no luck. Sort of like the Watcher, in Marvel Comics.
I implore people who found Stella to be unnerving and dislikeable to not feel guilty about it.
I used to see her, too, just like the cast of vagrants who hung around WSU. Some of them were impossible to feel OK about, too.
Some of you-- maybe you, Lowell-- may remember the guy we called "Cuffs" because his pants-legs were always dragging on the ground. Little short guy who always looked hostile. He came lurching up on my girlfriend [[now Mrs. Ravine) & I one night as we were coming out of George's. His growling and threatening manner scared the shit out of her, so I railed at him for a minute.

The point is that Stella may have been harmless enough, but when a crazed stranger starts screaming at you & wildly gesticulating, it's OK if you feel like "something should be done about" that person.

[RealityCheck]

Over at Assignment D, Darrell Dawsey provocatively expresses mixed emotions and pours high-octane observations on this topic [[bold added):

I knew enough to blow off the screams as nothing more than rantings from "the crazy Greektown lady" -- we all knew that -- but that doesn't mean that many of us young Detroit kids who ever heard Stella unload will recall her as "a sweetheart."

. . . I also remember wondering, even back then, how a boisterous, mentally unbalanced homeless lady was allowed to hang out in one of Detroit's premiere nightlife hubs, charging young people with sticks and billy clubs and shouting slurs, without ever being carted away.

Mostly, though, I remember wondering what so many of my friends and I would ask each other almost every time we ventured downtown and saw her: What if Stella had been a homeless black man hanging out in Greektown for all those years, going after passers by with staffs or shrieking threats at them at the top of his lungs while sprawled in front of the doorway of a vibrant establishment? Would that person still have been considered "colorful?" Would he be recalled as a "sweetheart?" Would anyone even deem him worth remembering at all?

And to assure his point is taken, DD reminds readers that a street character named Eric 'Mr. Magoo' Williams didn't live past 40 because a trooper shot him in front of the Detroiter Bar nearly five years ago.

Mind you, he's "certainly not mad" at Stella.

[oldredfordette]

I remember taking some friends to Trapper's Alley back when it was really Trapper's Alley and standing in a public bathroom when Stella came charging out of a stall, sans coulette, waving her billy club, screaming at us at the top of her lungs. We escaped unscathed [[except for the mental image, which lingers lo these many years). I agree with Darrell.

The shame is we have no provision in our society for the mentally ill. Stella needed help that she never got. She got compassion, which is REALLY REALLY GOOD, but no help except the averted eye.

[gnome]

Over at Assignment D, Darrell Dawsey provocatively expresses mixed emotions and pours high-octane observations on this topic [[bold added):And to assure his point is taken, DD reminds readers that a street character named Eric 'Mr. Magoo' Williams didn't live past 40 because a trooper shot him in front of the Detroiter Bar nearly five years ago.

Mind you, he's "certainly not mad" at Stella.

Mr. Dawsey should know that playing the What if... game is a non-starter. Because the answer could be anything; maybe he would have been given treatment, or would have had a family to rely upon or would have received that same Stella treatment. Since it is a what if anyone can make up their own scenerio and therefore it is a non-starter.

Mr. Dawsey should check his retorical devices before he uses them in such a clumsy and unconvincing manner.

[Hermod]

My maternal grandfather lost everything in the depression and when he died in 1939, my grandmother moved in with us. Grandma R was wonderful to have around and lived with my parents from 1940 to 1971 when she died. She was a blessing to our family.

Unfortunately, Grandma R had two older spinster sisters who by the 1940s were "going round the bend" and it fell to my mother to try and take care of them. There was a little bit of "Michigan Old Age Pension" money for them because they didn't have Social Security. Their house [[my great grandfather's) over on Putnam was condemned for the Lodge and my mother was having to always find "rooms" or "mother-in-law" apartments for them in various houses. Great-aunt H. died in the mid-fifties and Great-aunt G. died in the mid-seventies, but I remember what a trial they always were for my mother. She would buy their groceries, clean their room/apt, and square them away and head for home and immediately they would get on the phone to my grandmother with a long rant on how my mother had treated them and disrespected them.

[Lferg]

RIP Stella.