Leaving the Amish

Posted by Stevens Memorial Library.

The Stevens Memorial Library hosts a visit with author Saloma Miller Furlong Thursday, July 11, 2013 at 7:00 p.m.  Mrs. Furlong is the first speaker in the Stevens Memorial Library “Summer at the Stevens Thursday Nights” series.

            Mrs. Furlong writes openly about her life and the choices she faced as a young woman who wanted to learn more than her community considered necessary in her memoir, Why I Left the Amish (Michigan State University Press).  She brings a nuanced and balanced perspective to her memoir, which offers a rare look behind the organdy curtain that separates the Amish from the outside world.

            “There are two ways to leave the Amish: one is through life and the other through death,” writes author Saloma Miller Furlong, who grew up in an Amish community in Ohio. “To leave through life, one has to deliberately walk away.” Furlong tells how she made this difficult break.

            Furlong’s return to the Amish community for her father’s funeral frames the story of how she came to leave 24 years earlier. One of seven siblings in a dysfunctional family, Furlong endured the violent outbursts of her mentally ill father, lack of protection from her mother, and abuse at the hands of her older brother Joe. She recounts a life defined by the austere traditions of the Amish and the pressure to obey and conform. “The Amish life is not about saying no,” Furlong says. “It’s about going along.”

Furlong’s desire to further her education  -- Amish children leave school after eighth grade -- and her resistance to the oppressive strictness of Amish life, led her to run away from home at age twenty. She turned to an “English” neighbor (the Amish term for people who are not part of their community) for assistance. With $450 in her pocket and newly shorn hair, she took a night train to Vermont, where she began her new life of freedom.After leaving the Amish, Furlong married and had two sons. She graduated from Smith College in May 2007 with a major in German Studies and a minor in Philosophy. While she was at Smith, she completed an internship with noted Amish expert Dr. Donald Kraybill at Elizabethtown College. During her thirty-year struggle of coming to terms with her Amish past, Furlong has gleaned a better understanding of herself and of her heritage.  Mrs. Furlong is a regular speaker in addition to her writing. She was featured in the PBS American Experience program, “The Amish,” that premiered in February 2012.

“Thursday Nights” is a series of special visitors to the Library as part of “Summer at the Stevens.” There is a wide variety of programs for all ages: author visits, entertainers, children’s crafts, story times, book discussion groups, movies, and of course, books and e-books, magazines and

e-magazines, music, and movies to enjoy at home or on the road.  

All “Summer at the Stevens” events are free thanks to generous sponsors. Mrs. Furlong’s visit is sponsored by the North Andover Cultural Council, a local agency of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, and the Friends of the Stevens Memorial Library. Funding for the 2013 Statewide Summer Reading Programs “Dig into Reading,” “Beneath the Surface,” and “Groundbreaking Reads” is thanks to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, the Massachusetts Library Systems, and the Boston Bruins.

The Stevens Memorial Library is located at 345 Main St., North Andover, MA. The Library’s summer hours are Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. – 9 p.m., Friday 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.. The Library is closed Saturdays and Sundays. For more information about the Library or “Summer at the Stevens,” visit the Library, its website: www.StevensMemLib.org, or call at 978-688-9505, ext. 42016.