Remembering Deta Galloway

Deta with Toni Bee at her RE/Max Destiny Gallery opening

 
There are many women poets at Stone Soup Poetry who took on motherly roles on the open mic, presenting their best selves that urged the unruly rabble of males to do better. 

There was Joanna Nealon, who I proclaimed the First Lady of Stone Soup. Carol Weston was dubbed (again by me) as Our Lady Queen of Stone Soup. 

The recently departed Deta Galloway--poet, artist, singer--certainly served as a mother figure to some but seemed to me more of the fun aunt in our makeshift poetry family, just as likely to share wisdom with the younger members as she was to be up and partying with them. 

Years ago I took a video of her dancing at a birthday party. I shared it on Facebook, and she commented at the time, "If I knew I was gonna be on video..I wuddah stepped it up." 

It was easy to love Data Galloway the performer. She was an easy choice to fill a vacant spot at Stone Soup. I featured her six different times, with her appearing in nearly every location we were at up to and including the virtual world we retreated to during the pandemic. 

Online readings brought new challenges to Stone Soup's older participants. I remain indebted to Toni Bee for being able to enable Deta to feature remotely on May 1st, 2021, the exact day of Stone Soup's fiftieth anniversary of existence.  
 

 


Deta was very supportive as I was acclimating myself to my then-new relation ship with the partner I've been with for over fifteen years. Deta praised my role as a partner without having seen much of me in that role. I cherished her praise during this then-emerging chapter in my life. 

I savored her readings and relished the time I spent at her home in Roxbury, a one-woman gallery where she presided over salons with people of various talents, a gathering of people who likely wouldn't have met each other any other way except in that house on Humboldt Avenue. Sometimes I would run into friends I knew from other places unaware that they knew Deta too.  

Deta from a reading at her home in 2015.

With the passing of her longtime partner Roger Sheppard, things got difficult for Deta, and it was harder to stay in touch with Stone Soup no longer meeting in person. She moved away for a time before returning to Cambridge. I kept hoping Stone Soup could get her back in a room with the remaining Stone Soupers, but it didn't work out that way.

From a photo Deta sent me in 2019

Some older individuals who don't quite understand how the internet and social media work have multiple open Facebook accounts due to forgotten passwords and other mishaps. Deta had enough profiles in her name to create a fill a line of scrimmage in a football game. 

From the profiles I friended over the years, I am in the process of salvaging all the poems and photos she would send to me via Facebook Messenger. So many, too many for any one person to keep track of. Poems, snapshots of her art, even a recording of her singing in praise of Dr. Anthony Fauci that I hope hasn't been deleted. 

I hope it's all there. I hope I'm allowed to share them with you.

I have lost a lot of people in the last decade. This recent passing has left me numb, which is a sin given Deta's upbeat and booming personality. 

The fun aunt has fallen. The would-be patriarchs who relied on her to dance for them are sadder for it. The family continues and remembers. What else can we do?