Darlene Wasserman for Athens: Glimpses of Home

Local woman expands meaning of ‘home’

Athens: Glimpses of home

Jenaye Antonuccio (photo by Sherry DiBari)
May 1, 2008

One of Darlene Wasserman’s titles is about to change, but the first half of all of her roles has always been the same.

As a home-schooling mother, she has nearly completed her responsibilities toward her son’s education. Until June, she will continue equipping her son for high-school graduation and his next steps in life. Her reasons, she says, are multi-faceted. “I do it because it needs to be done, I have the skills to do it, and it seems like the right thing to do for our family and our son.”

As a homemaker, she has expanded the definition of beyond taking care of the house. “It extends beyond the concept of keeping rooms clean, preparing food, taking care of clothing,” she says. “It goes into making an environment that meets the bigger needs of the people living in the house: a place to relax, be safe, to be enriched.”

As an advocate for the homeless, Darlene, who is married to Keith Wasserman, executive director of the Good Works homeless shelter in Athens, offers care and support behind the scenes. “We encounter a lot of people who haven’t had a home, don’t know how to make one, but want or need one,” says Wasserman.

From her contact with people in poverty, she believes they don’t learn how to dream. “It’s debilitating and handicapping to a person to not have a good home life,” says Wasserman. “It’s destructive to not have an environment that nurtures you, or to have a place that addresses your physical, emotional and soul needs.”

Wasserman arrived in Athens in the fall of 1976, as an undergraduate. Raised in a single-parent home, she and her two brothers did not question their mother’s work, their subsistence on food stamps or the support they received from the government. “I was aware of my mother not having energy or time to read or to have dreams,” recalls Wasserman. “Her focus was surviving.”

Wasserman is the only one in her family to complete a college degree. From Ohio University, Wasserman earned a bachelor’s in fine arts, with an emphasis in art education and a minor in English for teaching reading. Recently, she earned a master’s degree in reading.

During her first two years of living on campus, she mistakenly thought Court Street was the town. Soon she discovered people and places that would become fixtures in her life.

“I was living with nine other people: one married couple and seven women,” says Wasserman. “I was involved with a Christian community on Elliott, Mill and Oak, with a lot of sharing of meals, and popping in and out of one another’s houses.”

During this time, she met and dated the man who would become her husband. “I got married and my husband had a house then, and was doing something with his life that required his energy.”

The house, located at 3 Elliott St., had a sign posted next to the door: Good Works. Her husband, Keith, was seeking to remedy homelessness in Athens County.

“For me to live in a house where people were coming and going,” says Wasserman, “wasn’t that unusual.” She describes herself as flexible and adaptable no matter what goes on around her. “I don’t think I thought too much about what it was going to be like. Living with somebody else always has its moments whether you are married to them or sharing common living space.”

After about five years, their vision hadn’t changed, but their response to what was going on around them was different. Rapidly disappearing from the neighborhood were the little old ladies with flower gardens, who were replaced by more students. “Some behaviors were starting to bug us,” Wasserman acknowledges. “We realized we either had to accept behaviors or move.”

They bought property for themselves outside of town. Good Works moved to its current west-side Central Avenue location and the subsequent Luhrig Road property just to the west of Athens.

THE CITY IS NEVER completely dark. In the country, often you cannot see in front of you. Having been a city-dweller her entire life, Wasserman was shocked upon moving outside of town. “There is a sound to silence,” she says. “It has a weight to it. It can be disconcerting.” Yet space is something she has come to appreciate.

“I haven’t formed what Good Works is,” says Wasserman. “I haven’t guided what it has become.”

Never enjoying the spotlight, she is more comfortable in the background. She provides impact by being flexible. “I didn’t say (to Keith), ‘We are not taking anyone into our house.’ Or when he is gone a lot of weekends, evenings or night shifts I didn’t say, ‘You can’t do this.’ I think I enabled him to put the time and energy into it that it requires and demands.”

Darlene Wasserman believes Good Works has impacted the community in unrecognized ways. “The community would not be the same if what he (husband, Keith) started did not exist,” she says. “I can’t even imagine how our community would be different, but I know it would be.”

Good Works has sought to give to those who have needed it. People in poverty are focused on survival, on the basics of human need. “Their energies don’t go into, ‘What do I want to do 10 years from now?’ or ‘Where would I like to go? What would I like to see?’ They are not thinking about having a garden in their front yard, or what color their curtains are.”

Over the years, Wasserman has discovered deeper parts of Athens: “There’s this whole world of people that were born, grew up, and had children here. They have gotten old, had jobs and life not even connected to the university. They are manufacturers, homemakers and farmers.”

A group of women with whom she became involved changed her perspective on relationships. They valued connectedness and longevity.

“These women had gone to school together, stayed in the community, and had children. And their children went to school together,” says Wasserman. “So they could talk about a lot of their lives. It’s probably the way we’re supposed to live: deeply connected, aware of one another’s history, having a vocabulary that can give your life stability. To feel the depth that time and history give to life.”

She hopes to enjoy the alterations that will soon take place in her life. She hopes to once again nurture her artistic temperament through painting. Regardless of the circumstances, no doubt she will live as she always has, providing for others’ needs. “Athens is home and it will be home for most of our lives, if not all of our lives,” she says.