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

**Danny** · January-20-10, 09:45 AM

Stella Paris was a true Detroiter. Stella knew that living in society is too sick so she choose the nature life. It's amazing that she survive up to her 95th birthday. If she gave her heart to Jesus she will be have eternal riches in the Kingdom of God. Stella is the first woman in Detroit history to a pure pauper life into enlightment compare to Budha. In a matter of fact she is the Budha of the Western Nations. Detroit and Greektown will miss radiant smile and image. May God take care of her where she'll live in peace in the holy kingdom.

The Street Prophets salute you.

**jcole** · January-20-10, 09:59 AM

Originally Posted by Danny

Stella Paris was a true Detroiter. Stella knew that living in society is too sick so she choose the nature life. It's amazing that she survive up to her 95th birthday. If she gave her heart to Jesus she will be have eternal riches in the Kingdom of God. Stella is the first woman in Detroit history to a pure pauper life into enlightment compare to Budha. In a matter of fact she is the Budha of the Western Nations. Detroit and Greektown will miss radiant smile and image. May God take care of her where she'll live in peace in the holy kingdom.

The Street Prophets salute you.

Only if Buddha carried a night stick and threatened people

**kryptonite** · January-21-10, 08:40 AM

Rest in peace Stella, I honestly miss you and your tirades. I did not know a thing about her but her first name until this week. If I did not work so far out of town I would like to attend the funeral service today.

**Alley_Cat** · January-21-10, 09:10 AM

Funeral today.........
http://www.detnews.com/article/20100121/METRO01/1210397

**Maof** · January-21-10, 09:18 AM

wow....i guess we now know her story

**Maof** · January-21-10, 09:45 AM

...and she looks happier in her greektown photo than her wedding one.

**Lowell** · January-21-10, 10:16 AM

Very good article by Doug Guthrie of the New linked by Alley Cat above. Mental illness is such a cruel disease as it does not elicit the same degrees of sympathy other ailments do. I feel for the son and appreciate his forthrightness and sharing his story and that picture. It must have been very difficult for a child in that situation.

Addendum, I just spotted this picture on Stephen Goodfellow's Tribes of the Cass Corridor site http://corridortribe.com/.

**Pam** · January-21-10, 11:13 AM

She will be buried in a donated plot at Woodmere Cemetery in Detroit

Seems like her family could at least have bought her a plot. They don't look poor.

**jcole** · January-21-10, 11:54 AM

I get the feeling that Stella belonged more to the city than to her sons.

**Ray1936** · January-21-10, 12:22 PM

Originally Posted by jcole

I get the feeling that Stella belonged more to the city than to her sons.

Well put, Jcole.

**Tony Codfish** · January-21-10, 04:33 PM

Originally Posted by 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.

I remember her well too from those days when Trapper's Alley really was an alley. I never had a run-in with her but I saw her and heard her all the time. In my mind I can picture her walking with that little billie-club in her hand. I was shocked she was still alive.

Back then, there was a guy who used to sit in a second story window in the [[Trapper's) alley and play guitar. Does anyone else remember him?

**Hermod** · January-21-10, 08:35 PM

Someone once said about the homeless that most of them had exhausted their welcome with any family or friends.

I just feel that if I was suddenly destitute that between my siblings, cousins, children, and grown grandchildren, somebody would have a spare room for me or at least a sofa to crash on and that i would behave myself in such a manner that I wouldn't wear out my welcome.

Bearinabox · January-21-10, 08:54 PM

Originally Posted by Hermod

...i would behave myself in such a manner that I wouldn't wear out my welcome.

This is a lot easier when you're not schizophrenic.

**Hermod** · January-21-10, 09:00 PM

Originally Posted by Bearinabox

This is a lot easier when you're not schizophrenic.

or strung out on drugs, or wasted on booze, or a kleptomaniac, or a pyromaniac, etc all of which cause a person to be undesirable.

We can fix the homeless family problem. The single homeless problem requires institutionalized custodial care.

**kryptonite** · January-22-10, 11:40 AM

The supreme court ruling that closed the institutions and "asylums" did not help out urban problems at all. I guess a huge percentage of mentally ill people that would have once been comitted to an institution are now living in abandoned buildings and houses in decaying urban neighborhoods. And wouldn't that explain a lot of the fires in abandoned buildings, homeless people building fires to keep warm and ulitmately set the place on fire.

To me it would have been preferable to keep them in homes where at least they had a place to sleep and meals provided. I'm sure the 'asylums' were not pleasant places but they at least had a roof over their heads.

**Tony Codfish** · January-22-10, 01:53 PM

No doubt, neither Stella nor society was well served by how her condition was generally dealt with.

We constantly do things in society that plainly do not work ... repeat the behavior over and over, and then wonder why the hell things don't get better.

1) Tossing the mentally ill onto the street. This costs considerably more in the long run than doing the very tough work of keeping them on meds and out of trouble.
There *are* some chronics that are not treatable [[ie. that require institutionalization) but that is actually a very small percentage of the mentally ill.

and while I'm at it ...

2) Jail time rather than drug rehabilitation is another example. Recidivism on substance abuse related imprisonment [[i.e. from being an addict) is even higher than the average for all other incarcerations. Substance abuse is far and away the greatest contributor to crime and imprisonment.
And imprisonment is THE VERY BEST WAY to INSURE that someone will break the law again.
Considering the Return-on-Investment for proper substance abuse treatment, this is the lowest of the low-hanging-fruit. Instead, we put the money in the wrong place - and the proof is in the pudding. How much more evidence do we need?

3) Not intervening in early childhood development and then having kids drop out of school and get involved with chronic drug abuse and crime is another.
There’s a lot of truth in the saying: "It’s easier to make and keep good wine than to turn vinegar back to wine."

There are many more examples of our shortsighted thinking.

A huge percentage of our population are a bunch of ignorant, macho hillbillies in this country ... and people's desire to fight ... as in "fight" crime rather than "stop" crime, is the result.

Politicians abuse and bait the voter by standing on the backs of those who have been victimized by crime to get the vote. And terms of office are short enough as to make this a near constant behavior.

Further, it is well known that "entities are specifically incapable of acting in a way which runs contrary to their own self interests" ... particularly interests of funding and power ... law enforcement & corrections to name a couple.

I want us to STOP crime ... not "fight" crime.
Same for the other problems mentioned above.

NOTE the results we get.
There is a *reason* we get the results we do.

I digress.

It is correct to say that Stella’s aggressive behavior should never have been tolerated ... however, putting her permanently in an institutional setting was not necessarily the answer.
Getting people to stay on their meds is a huge problem .. but not insurmountable. In nearly all regards, Stella consistantly "slipped thru the cracks". In terms of lost productivity and the cost of our ad-hoc responses to her condition, she's an example of how we failed over an entire lifetime.

**East Detroit** · January-23-10, 07:50 AM

Originally Posted by Hermod

I just feel that... i would behave myself in such a manner that I wouldn't wear out my welcome.

Yes, people do feel that. And then they feel that they can blame the homeless.

Watch out for banana peels.

**Waxxman** · December-29-10, 10:42 AM

I worked in Greektown from 1977 to the end of '79 and knew Stella.. as well as she allowed anyone to know her.
I won't join into the discussion of whether or not she should have been allowed to remain on the streets, whether or not the system or society failed her.
If I had been in Detroit, if I had known of her passing, I would have been proud to step up and say I knew Stella, and that she was loved.

**ja!mz** · December-29-10, 10:59 AM

Does anyone remember the lady who would hang out by the Ford Building or Penobscot in the '90's who would yell at you "Gimme a quarter!"

**BrushStart** · December-29-10, 11:01 AM

Originally Posted by Tony Codfish

A huge percentage of our population are a bunch of ignorant, macho hillbillies in this country ... and people's desire to fight ... as in "fight" crime rather than "stop" crime, is the result.

Your entire post is enlightening.

+1