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What a delight to participate in this tribute to our mother, Elizabeth Erickson!
Members of our family have long been questions by professionals as well as others who were
intrigued by Milton Erickson’s revolutionary and unique approaches to hypnosis and
psychotherapy. Although his life ended over 20 years ago, interest in him and his work has
been sustained, and the many questions have persisted. Sometimes the questioners are humble
and gracious, others are fascinatingly intrusive. All of our family members have learned to
respond, while protecting whatever privacy we wish to hold, and to take real pleasure in
this interest.
Marilia Baker has been exquisitely delicate in her inquiries and discovery of details about
our family. We have all been pleased that she has taken a specific interest in our mother
whose contributions were central and integral to our father’s work. The family has long
been aware of the importance of our mother’s thinking, which was so different than our
father’s, her often-contrasting perspectives, and the influence that she made on his
personal and professional accomplishments.
Our mother was fully supportive of our father. She believed that part of her role was to free
him from some of the burdens of daily life, to broaden his thinking, to enhance his creativity
with her own unique outlooks, and to work as a partner with him in the family unit. She did
this with little fanfare and great influence. He responded with tremendous respect for her
individuality and her ideas and frequently modified his positions. Her independent thinking,
wrapped in total commitment allowed his genius to fully emerge.
There are always many transitions in family life. A few of ours included Dad’s move from
working outside the home to a home-office with the waiting room in the front room and the
secretary in the dining room. The dining room table was usurped by our parents’ massive
efforts in beginning, writing for, and editing for a decade, a professional journal. Later,
they began traveling as Dad’s teaching assumed larger dimensions and then patients were
partially replaced by an entourage of students, some of whom stayed in our home for extended
periods. Dad’s increasing physical disabilities eventually necessitated a move to different
home, which could accommodate both his wheelchair and the growing numbers of students. We all
saw these events as parts of a perfectly normal and routine family life.
As adults, we now realize we were extraordinarily privileged to have all the experiences and
opportunities we had, but especially to have had Mom and Dad as our parents. We witnessed the
rapport, cooperation, adaptation, focus, pleasures, and enjoyment of life that the two of them
experienced and modeled. We also know Mom provided all the children with much more than most
people can ever know. We, more than anybody, know that Dad could not have done what he did
without Mom. How nice it is that Marilia sees that too.
Thank you, Marilia, for doing this, for telling the tale in your own language, in your own words
and your own style. And thank you for letting us have the enjoyment of remembering and
reflecting on some of the small aspects of everyday life that, actually, mean everything.
Teresa, thank you for the encouragement, and the means that you provided. Your suggestions
and invitations to both Marilia and ourselves have given us an opportunity to get to know
one another, to listen to the music of different voices that tell a beautiful story.
Roxanna Erickson Klein and Betty Alice Erickson
Milton H. Erickson Institute of Dallas,
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