Gratitude Friday 5 9 25 - Annabelle Dittbrenner - a Force of Nature

When I think back at the people who have shaped my life, some really stand out. There were several people I was not particularly close to personally, but the things that they did and the way that they did them had a profound influence on my life. One of these people was the late Annabelle Dittbrenner and I knew her name well before the first time I ever met her. She influenced the course of my life well before I ever knew her name.

I was born and raised in Lehigh County PA, a place I still live in. As I have been fairly open about how I developed an addiction problem early in life and when I sought help, I found it. In reflection the structures of care in our public sector for persons like me had a lot to do with Annabelle. Annabelle was the first director of the county office in my home county that implemented and oversaw the very kinds of programs I sought help from just over a decade after they were formed, which occurred because Harold Hughes and efforts I wrote about in 2023 a different context in Antidiscrimination Language and the Hughes Act of 1970. After that Act was passed, money to the States and what are called Single County Authorities were formed across PA. Annabelle was the first director of the one in my home county.  She was Director when I got help and still served in that role until well after I was established in the field.

Annabelle died in May of 2017 at the age of 86, 8 years ago this week. I saw her regularly in her later years when she made sure the agency I worked at was safe and ran well. She had vigor into her 80s and an unmatched zest for life. Her obituary noted that from 1952-1971, she was a Staff Nurse at Allentown Hospital, progressing from general duty to Head Nurse to Supervisor of Psychiatry. From 1962-1971, she also served as Administrative Director, Allentown Alcoholic Counseling Center Outpatient Clinic. From 1971-1973, she was Coordinator of Northeastern PA Alcoholism Detox & Rehab Center in Northampton, PA. From 1973-1993, Annabelle was the Executive Director, Office of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Services, Lehigh County Dept. of Human Services, Allentown, PA. Following her retirement in 1993, she was employed by Treatment Trends of Allentown, PA from 1996 until May of 2017 as Coordinator of Quality Assurance.

It is an impressive list of life accomplishments, yet so very incomplete. It was not only the roles she served in but how she carried out these roles. She held high expectations for herself and all who served in programs she had oversight of. She was tough as nails and everyone knew it. Yet, she also cared deeply about the people served and did her best to ensure that programs did their very best with the resources which they were entrusted with. I never met anyone who knew Annabelle who did not respect her. Most who did know her at one point or another was taken to task to do better, including me. But as tough as she was, no one could argue that she all wanted us to do and be better at what we did to help people heal. This was the foundation on which all of our local services were built. She also had an expectation that agencies would work together, so they did. She was such a force I suspect few saw any alternative even when they did not want to play well together. Perhaps most importantly, you could raise concerns with her, and she would change things when she realized that the points one was making were valid. In short, I got help from and later worked in a system of care that rested on really healthy dynamics.

Not taking shots, yet I see little of these kinds of dynamics in any of the systems in any region here in PA or beyond. There are some great programs and great leaders, but we have largely been unable to create the kinds of ethos that people like Annabelle did years ago. To me, this means we have to acknowledge those truths and work harder to do and be better, that is what Annabelle would have us do.

When I left my post as Director of the Halfway Home of the Lehigh Valley after 14 years at the helm in 2012, she conducted my exit interview and said very nice things about me and my leadership, which meant all the more to me as I knew well she would not have done so if she did not believe it. She also gave me the Hamster of Happiness button pictured above, which I press occasionally in her honor and says silly affirming things in a high-pitched hamster voice. It is still going strong on the original batteries, just like the late, great Annabelle Dittbrenner.

I hit the lottery when I got into the field and worked in systems that had set up cultures of accountability and client centered care, simply because of when and where I was at the time. This does not mean there were no problems, there were many problems, but we worked together and knew we could do better. There were a lot of people who helped set that culture, but Annabelle ran the system of care under which it was nurtured and expanded. I am grateful for this as it helped me identify what my reasons for doing this work were and to center my efforts on things that had meaning and purpose.

What are you grateful for today?