This narrative is part of a larger oral history project conducted in 1993 and 1994 entitled Extraordinary Ordinary Women . It was inspired by relationships I had established with women who had been clients during my employment as a geriatric social worker by the University of California Department of Internal Medicine. After resigning from my job, I found myself unable to retire these singular individuals from my life or mind and asked that they tell me their stories. They each had a presence that refused to be erased by time or aging and an abundance of spirit and personal determination.
Oral history differs from a formal interview.
The storyteller is on her own stage, decides which characters will join her, designs her own props, and authors the script. The telling reenacts and reinvents a life. Oral history tends not to be linear. Mary Perkins, the subject and voice of this piece, is now 86 and lives in a sparsely furnished house in a low-income neighborhood of Sacramento, California. Her beautiful face always smiles welcome.