Becoming Darlene: Local Author Ed Orzechowski

The Greenfield Public Library is pleased to welcome Local Author Ed Orzechowski to speak on his book Becoming Darlene—The Story of Belchertown Patient #4952 on Wednesday, October 8 at 6:30 pm in the Community Meeting Room.

Darlene Rameau, the eighth child in a family of fourteen, was born in 1956 in the mill town of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Abused and neglected, Darlene didn’t respond to her own name. She considered herself an It. At age three she was sent to live with an aunt, where the abuse continued. The little girl didn’t speak, but began to hear voices in her head, and when she was seven years old, Darlene was sent to a place called Belchertown State School. 

Becoming Darlene follows the publication in 2016 of You’ll Like It Here, The Story of Donald Vitkus—Belchertown Patient #3394, which became an all-time best-seller for Levellers Press of Amherst, Massachusetts. Both books are the work of Ed Orzechowski, a retired high school English teacher, radio, and print journalist, who lives with his wife Gail in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Books will be available for purchase at the program. 

For more information, contact Lisa Prolman at [email protected], or call (413) 772-1544.

This program, sponsored by the Friends of the Greenfield Public Library, is free and open to the public.