Helen Hope Cummins

Helen Hope Cummins (Hope Cummins), age 80, of West Bloomfield, Michigan passed away on February 21, 2025. She was born to Evelyn Richie on December 21, 1944 in Dearborn, Michigan. Beloved wife to Fred A Cummins. Devoted mother to Frederic Sean Cummins. Loving Sister to Deanna Shantz, Elizabeth Decker and Robert Decker. Helen was preceded in death by her daughter Paige Elizabeth Cummins and Brother Laurence Decker. Hope married Fred not long after graduation from high school. She soon had two children, Frederic Sean (Sean) and Paige Elizabeth. They were about 15 months apart. Hope started college at Wayne State University. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree, and soon after was accepted at the University of Michigan Law School. Hope graduated with a Juris Doctor degree. She passed the Michigan Bar exam, but she did not start a law practice. She had two young children, and starting a new law practice or joining a law firm would have required a major commitment of her time and attention. Life was good. Paige experienced her first mental illness crisis while in high school. This was the biggening of a lifetime of periodic crises and hospitalizations. From the onset of Paige’s illness, Hope searched for answers. She read everything she could find about mental illness, treatments, community programs, medications, research. She subscribed to professional journals, and she had the latest DSM (psychiatric symptoms and diagnoses) and PDR (doctor’s directory of medications and studies). She bought the latest books at the bookstore. This was before Google and social media. Paige had several hospitalizations, when she reached the limit on our employer-based healthcare insurance, we had to take her to Clinton Valley Center, the state psychiatric hospital in Pontiac (since closed, several years later). That was a traumatic experience. After Clinton Valley Center, she was admitted to Lafayette Clinic in a research program. She was there for two years with minimal improvement. She was transferred to Caro Regional Center, the state hospital in Care, Michigan. She was there for another 10 years, until finally released for community care, with 24-hour, residential care. Hope and Fred became advocates for better care for people suffering from a mental illness and their families. Hope organized and hosted a “reading room” at Clinton Valley Center, as a place for patients and families to learn more about mental illness. Somebody called her, “the lady with blue eyes who knows everything.” Later she established the office of the Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Oakland County (AMI Oakland), first with MACED (the Michigan Association for Children with Emotionally Disabilities and later the Michigan Mental Health Association. This collaboration continued for many years. As Paige’s guardian, Hope participated in a class action lawsuit brought by AMI Oakland, to improve the transition of state hospital patients to appropriate community care. Paige was one of the representative plaintiffs. Hope participated in the discovery investigation to develop the case, drawing attention to the needs for change. Hope became President of the Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Oakland County and published the State newsletter. Fred became President of the state organization. Hope was involved in state and local politics for recipient rights problems and mental health system reform. During this time, Hope led the organization of several state-level Mental Health conferences, and continued publication of the state newsletter. Hope was also engaged in political advocacy. She attended every CMH board meeting and knew the board members and she regularly made public comment. She got to know the county commissioners because they had a CMH oversight role. She got to know legislators and attended committee hearings, and she got to know the Director and members of the state, Department of Mental Health. Hope was a leader in a demonstration opposing the closure of Lafayette Clinic as one of the state hospital closures. She Chained the Lafayette Clinic door closed to stop the transfer of patients to other state hospitals. She celebrated (in a newspaper photo) the court order for appearance of the state Director of the Department of Mental Health, and the warrant for his arrest when he refused to appear in court. It was reputed that he was hiding in the Governor’s office. While Paige was in the hospital for many years, and later in community care, Paige was safe. Hope no longer had day to day involvement in her care. Fred was engaged in representing his company in the development of international standards for computer software systems. He participated in quarterly, week-long meetings, about half of those at international locations. Hope joined Fred in many of the international trips and they took vacation time in each country after the standards meetings. They traveled to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, England, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Sweden, Finland and Greece over a number of years. They also took an ad hoc tour to Beijing, China, and visited the Great Wall. These were exceptional experiences. Over the years, Paige experienced some improvement. However, she was always distracted by disturbing thoughts, and at risk of a crisis, in which she might hurt herself. A head injury in 2013 almost killed her. After that hospitalization and lengthy rehabilitation, Hope became her fulltime caregiver. Paige never fully recovered from both complex mental and physical disturbances. She continued to decline in physical health. She died of a hospital-acquired Infection, in 2019. Hope was devastated. She always hoped we would find a treatment for Paige to have a life. She knew the real Paige was still “in there,” but hidden behind the curtain of her illness. Now there was no chance of recovery. Hope stopped advocacy, as well as most other social participation. She had some medical problems. She died from a heart attack. Please share a memory of Hope by signing her Guestbook.