THE TWIG
IVewspaper of the Students of itferedith College
VOL. LVIII, NO. 14
MEREDITH COLLEGE, RALEIGH, N.C.
FEBRUARY 7, 1980
Sizemore, **Eve,” Recounts Her
Chris Sizemore, “Eve,” spoke and answered questions about her
personal life on Wednesday night in Jones Auditorium. (Photo by
Peggy Williford)
“I am frightened, just a
little frighten^. There is no
place for me to go now. I have
always needed some place to
go; from the very beginning I
have needed some place to go,
and now I have no place ...
If. knowing the
truth makes one fr^, it also
makes one naked, exposed,
unguarded, afraid.” (I’m
Eve) Elen Sian Pittillo
wondered, five years ago, how
to begin writing the story of
her cousin’s battle with
mental illness. Her cousin,
Chris Costner Sizemore,
began for her. Chris was
afraid.
Today, after almost six
years of self-searching and
struggle, Chris Sizemore,
better known to the world as
“Eve,” is a whole woman.
Sizemore suffered, for 40
years, from the unique mental
disorder,multiple personality.
This dissociative response is a
neurosis which she describes
as a “unique coping
mechanism for facing the
realities of life that seem
unbearable.” The mechanism
produces separate per
sonalities to deal with
stressful situations. It is not a
form of schizophrenia, which
implies a shattered per
sonality. “It is not moods, not
role playing. The personalities
are totally separate entities,”
Sizemore explained. Over the
last 40 years she experienced
22 personalities.
In June, Sizemore, who is
52, will have been “stable” for
six years. She speaks of the
time when her personality
was formed as the
“resolution.” At that time
there were three personalities
sharing her body: the Purple
Lady; the Strawberry Girl;
and the Retrace Lady. The
Retrace Lady was the last of
the three to disappear, and
when she was gone, Chris, a
woman with quiet dignity and
aqua eyes, was there. There is
a faint hint of Georgia in her
voice.
“I thought I would know
immediately when it was all
over - and I did - but all I felt
was a feeling of loss. And so,
for the first year I tried
desperately to get them
back.” In her desperation, she
created a short lived per
sonality, Andrea, a mute. “I
made her very ill equipped to
live. She was very unsettled.
She knew she was the last one
and had little desire to live.
She lasted only six weeks.”
Andrea was the .shortest lived
of all her personalities.
After the resolution,
Sizemore went through a
period of about six weeks of
recall. “I saw the other
personalities and what they
had done. It wasn’t as if I
remembered myself doing
those things, but rather as
pictures of someone else doing
three things with my body.”
“I saw them die 22 times.
News and Announcements
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is come to Cate Center bet-
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They prepared themselves for
death, some even wrote wills.
They thought of themselves as
dying. It was very painful. I
grieved for them as 1 would
have grieved for the death of a
relative. They were my
psychic sisters.” She says that
this experience has given her
a broad view of death, which
she sees as merely moving on
to another phase.
Among her personalities
there were ten poets, seven
artists, and one tailor. One of
them was an accomplished
singer. “I couldn’t carry a
tune in a bucket today,”
Sizemore says. She is now an
artist and often accompanies
her work with special poetry
she writes.
There was also
desperation in three of her
personalities. Two^ tried to
commit suicide because they
feared they would never be
cured. The third, Jane, who
ended Dr. Corbett Thi^en’s
and Dr. Hervey Cleckley’s
Three Faces of Eve so
hopefully, attempted suicide
because she realized she felt
another personality coming
and couldn’tcope with it. “She
knew if she destroyed the body
it would stop the personality
from coming.”
Jane was also the only
personality who tried to
establish a legal name. “She
even has a social security
number.’’
Sizemore has two
children, Taffy, 32 and Bobby,
20. However, she is not their
psychic mother. “Taffy’s
mother was the Freckle Girl
and Bobby’s was the Bell
ween 2:30 and 5:30 Saturday,
February 16 and put them
together!
At least $2.50 must be paid
in advance. Bring down
payment and yarn color
preference to Mary Lay or a
Cate Center Student Assistant
before 11:00 p.m. Thursday,
February 14.
BRING YOUR
SCISSORS!
For further information,
call Sharon Davis, 828-5408.
1 Student Assistant-
Librarian’s Office
4 Student Assistants-
Circulation, Main Library
Application forms
available in Librarian’s Of
fice. All applications must be
received before February 28,
1980.
Lady. Th6y each have a very
special feeling for that par
ticular personality. Once,
when I was going through the
attic, packing up the
memorabilia of the per
sonalities, Bobby said ‘Don’t
throw that away, that was my
mother’s.” She adds that
several of her personalities
felt that the children were not
theirs.
She has been married to
Don Sizemore for 26 years,
and she admits it has been
difficult, especially for the
past five years. ‘“I am not the
person he chose to marry and
he is not my choice. He fell in
love with and married Jane,
and I guess he loved her best.”
Not all of her personalities
accepted him, eitoer, but “he
said that made things easier
for him. He said ‘Once they
didn’t like me, I didn’t like
them, either.” The Sizemores
have decided to try to work it
out, though. “All marriages
take a little struggle” she
says.
Today, Sizemore
describes herself as a
“combination of all the in
tegrated personalities. I have
become my own person as
well. I’m fully aware I was all
of those people for 40 years
and intellectually they were
all me. Intellecutally I know
this. Emotionally, it still
seems as if 22 other women
used my body for 40 years.”
She is not always sure she
has lived a full life. “I have
mixed feelings. Maybe I have
lived a fuller life than most
people, but as far as ac
complishing and doing things.
there may have been many
things I could have done
without the disorder. Still, I
am very happy with my life. I
like me. I can take criticism.
“I am the one who lived.
In reality. I’ve just begun to
live. It’s a very exciting
feeling. I have some problems
to work out but so does
everyone else.”
Sizemore hopes that other
people can gain from her
experience. “You can’t go to a
therapist and expect him to
solve your problem. You have
to help yourself, too. I am
where I am today because I
wanted to do somethii^ about
it, I had excellent medical aid,
and the support of my family.
“The multiple personality
is not hopeless. At the time
Eve was diagnosed in 1952,
there was only one
documented case of multiple
personality. Today at least 160
cases have been accepted and
documented. I think there are
even more people who are
undiagnosed.”
Sizemore enjoys lec
turing, and feels it is good for
her. “Once in a while, I have
to be honest, I get torn up. I
don’t try to be the canned
speech. I talk to the people the
way I feel at that moment.”
Her cousin, Elen Pittillo,
says that Chris is still “too
sensitive, but she is at peace
now. She is contented.”
Most of all, Sizemore feels
lucky. “I am free. I’m one of
the people who have traveled
to the rainbow’s end and has
picked up the golden thread of
life.”
REW provided an inspiration in words and song
January 28 through
Feburary 1 was a special
week here at Meredith
College. Worship services,
discussions, a communion
service, a concert, and other
events helped celebrate
Religious Emphasis Week.
The Rev. Judi Smith,
pastor of Pilmoore Memorial
United Methodist Church in
Currituck, was a special guest
who performed three worship
services and led other hap
penings during the week.
Events on Monday in
cluded a prayer breakfast in
the President’s Dining Room,
a discussion led by toe Rev.
Judi Smith, and a worship
service in Cate Center led by
toe Rev. Smith which con
cerned “making your own
decisions and breaking away
from home.”
Tuesday, a Faculty
Luncheon was held in the
President’s Dining room, and
a Candlelight Communion
Service took place Tuesday
night in the Bryan Rotunda.
Wednesday, a worship
service was held in Cate
Center, led by toe Rev. Judi
Smith whose message was, “I
Can’t Do It Myself.*’ Glenda
Morgan sang “For All of Us
Frogs” in which she explained
that God wants us to search
taside and find out who we
The group “Chalice” entertained a large group of Meredith
students and others on Thursday, January 31st. “Chalice” was
sponsored by REW.
are. “All of us frogs has a
beautiful person inside,” she
said.
In her message, Rev.
Smith said that optimism dies
a difficult death in capable
people. “We find ourselves
intangled in things we did not
bring about - things outside of
us that we have no control
over. We must understand
that which is outside of us
must be brought in. Most of us
don’t reach that point in which
we say, ‘I can’t do it myself. I
can’t cope any longer’.”
“Hope and optimism are
two entirely different things,”
she went on. “Hope is used at
toe point of realizing I can’t do
it myself. Optimism doesn’t
allow us to do that.” She
concluded with a prayer.
The big event of toe week
was held Thursday night at
8:(K) in Jones Auditorium. The
one lady, three man Christian
musical group, “Chalice,”
performed a dynamic and
inspiring concert for a large
group of youth. They began
their performance with the
song, “Fly Away,” with
lyrics, “His love will never
fail you, never fail me.”
Before long, one could
hear clapping, singing, and
laughing with familiar hymns
and sing-alongs. A woglihg
song called, “Lady Hoo,”
could even be heard.
The, events concluded
Friday with a worship service
in Bryan Rotunda led by Rev.
Judi Smith, followed by a
reception in Johnson Hall.