Tom Matlack interviews his mother, Jean, about her aunt Pearl Buck, the Freedom Summer of 1964, communal living, and finding a balance between work and family.
Jean Matlack went to Westtown School, where she met my dad, graduating in 1956. She got her B.A. from Bryn Mawr in 1960 and married my dad that June, at age 21. My brother, Will, was born in 1962, I was born in 1964, and my sister, Laura, was born in 1969. She got her doctorate of education from UMass in 1977 and spent the next 23 years as a practicing psychotherapist. She is a Kripalu-trained yogi, has done extensive mediation, and is current engaged passionately in creating a green planet. My mom and dad have retired to Rockport, Maine. They have been married 52 years and have six grandchildren.
Me & Mom
It has not always been easy for me to be my mother’s son. She became a psychotherapist during my adolescent years and had something of a wild spirit. But I respect my mom greatly for her willingness to take big risks and say things 
What I found out is that, like me, she suffered from depression and profound isolation. She’d done what she could to manage those afflictions while living a fascinating life and making a difference in the world.
What follows, in honor of mother’s day, is perhaps the most honest conversation I have ever had with my Mom about her Aunt (Nobel Laureate Pearl Buck), about becoming a mother at 23, about going to Mississippi in the sumer of 1964, about her participation in the feminist movement, about living communally while raising a family, about the legacy she hopes to pass on to her grandchildren, and about her most cherished memories of me as a kid.
Next: Missionaries
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A nice article. We are the same age, Tom. My mother did not join the feminist movement and revolutions of the 60s. My father was dean of a law school and very establishment-oriented, and she devoted herself to support of his career. Instead she subconsciously channeled her objections to the patriarchal system through me – and my father made me his intellectual ally and friend because my mother could not – or would not – relate to him on that level. So I see some parallels in growing up in revolutionary times, which in some sense continue today. I too… Read more »
I loved this interview. My mother’s parents were Presbyterian missionaries to Cuba. When I was 9, my family lived In Mexico and I remember my mother putting Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth in my hand and telling me how much she identified with her, for the love of adventure, the giving to others, the religious background, and the fact that both were adoptive mothers.
And about your mother–she sounds like a fascinating woman and it’s remarkable what she accomplished given the fact that she often felt depressed and isolated. Thanks for sharing her with us.
Very cool Pauline. Thanks for reading. Glad we have that Presbyterian missionarie blood in common…