GALLERY OF UNUSUAL PEOPLE
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Even "Unsuitable" Ones
mT)oom for one more" became, in
JLv turn, a popular book, movie, tele
vision show. But the woman whose life
story was the basis for all three was a
well-loved legend in our town of Upper
Montclair, N.J., long before outsiders
ever heard of her.
For years, my neighbor, Anna Rose Wright,
has been doing more to give prospective parents-by-adoption
a healthy, workable approach to that
delicate relationship than any dozen "experts"
put together.
Besides three children of their own, she and
her chemical-engineer husband raised and put
through college Ave little "visitors" who came
for a few weeks and stayed to join the family.
These youngsters were no bargains. But as Anna
Rose points out cheerfully, "Children aren't very
suitable anyhow, so you may as well take the
unsuitable ones and go on from there."
Those the Wrights took under their roof proved
their unsuitability with gusto. Instead of re
taliating or cracking down, however, Anna and
Arthur Wright and their own children simply
overwhelmed the unhappy rebels with love,
warmth, and welcome.
Thirtecn-ycar-old Jane, for example, was the
unwanted daughter of parents who had remar
ried. A defiant tantrum thrower, she wouldn't
lift a finger at first, or even smile. But the fun
loving Wright household proved too much for her.
"Somehow I couldn't laugh as easily as the
Wrights, but before I knew what was happening,
I'd learned!" recalls Jane, who is now the con
tented mother of three children.
By rearing five homeless waifs in addition to
her own children, Anna Rose Wright lived the
idea that there's always "room for one more"
By JAMES C. G. CONNIFF
Another addition, Jimmy John, was even worse.
A tiny, polio-stricken orphan, he used the little
strength he had to kick and bite. The Wrights'
answer was to pour on more of the love they had
so much of. Coupled with years of surgery, it in
spired Jimmy John to fight his way back to health
so successfully he became an Eagle Scout
Then there was Joey, an ill-mannered, grimy
little illiterate with adenoids. Today he is a cour
teous, clean-cut young man. Says a close friend,
"Out came Joey's adenoids and tonsils, and in
went the miracle life with the Wrights." The
family's friendly, rough-and-tumble ways in time
had the same painlessly civilizing effect on two
more rough diamonds named Paul and Albert
Anna rose is very down-to-earth about the
.whole thing. She warns that anyone who
takes a disturbed or destitute child will find that
in the beginning "they lie frantically, brag un
bearably, scream nightly in wild nightmares, and
wet the bed." But grownups who love them
enough to hang on will see definite improvement
in six months, she believes "although it takes
at least a year before a child really settles down."
During her leisure hours Anna Rose has taught
swimming to children at the Y, given sailing
lessons to Girl Scout Mariners, run a high-spirited
Episcopal boys' choir and written such books as
"Room for One More," "Barefoot Days," and
"Summer at Buckhorn."
A distinguished critic calls them "children's
books you will keep and remember long after you
have thrown away dozens of the shabby, arty,
frightened little volumes currently being ac
claimed as literature." Part of the reason is that
every line Anna Rose put down on paper was
tried out on volunteer audiences of neighborhood
children before the publisher ever saw it.
"I felt a book ought to be able to make a child
forget his supper," she says. "I wrote for this ef
fect and read it aloud before meals to see whether
it could hold them against a little hunger."
All Anna Rose's children now are grown and
gone, but as other children read her immortal
books, they come knocking at her door to visit
with the wonderful lady who wrote them.
She welcomes them all with a smile like morn
ing sunlight for, in this woman's heart, there
always will be room for one more.
ES3S3aESSsr&SKaa3g
COVER:
This outdoorsman, photographed by Jim
Fond in ConHvy, S'ew Hampshire, is en
gaged in ice fishing a fast-growing win
ter sport in northern areas of the country.
Family I
IVesJcIr
M
February J. 1 96 J
loord of Irfhoft
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