Ruth Zali Deming

Ruth Zali Deming (née Greenwold) died peacefully on February 10 from complications of dementia. She was a poet, journalist, therapist, mental health activist, single mom, and bohemian bon vivant.

The eldest of six, Ruth was born Christmas 1945 at Camp Lejeune to Bernice and Harold Greenwold. She graduated from Shaker Heights High and attended Goddard College in Vermont before graduating from Temple. While working at the family store, the Now and Then Shop in New Hope, Pennsylvania, she met the father of her two children, Mike Deming of Texas. After their divorce, Ruth returned to Pennsylvania, where she wrote feature stories for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Montgomery County Record, Art Matters, and other local papers, celebrating the beauty she saw everywhere. Ruth's gift for getting life stories out of complete strangers was as legendary as her ability to walk on her hands.

Diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 38, her life's work became helping others. She got her Master's in Group Therapy and Group Process from Hahnemann University and founded New Directions Support Group, a nonprofit which served thousands of people with mood disorders and their families over three decades. Ruth published the Compass mental health magazine, blogged at the Belle of Cowbell, lectured at local hospitals, spoke out against stigma, and took calls from anyone in distress. Her message: Stay on your meds and follow your bliss.

When Ruth experienced renal failure due to lithium, her daughter donated a kidney at Einstein Hospital in Philadelphia. In her fourteen years post-transplant, Ruth battled diabetes but still traveled to Paris and London, baked her famous challah, cracked jokes with her sisters, read voraciously, painted colorful dots on every available object, and moon gazed with her beloved boyfriend and next-door neighbor. She maintained her sunny disposition until the end, brightening the darkness of dementia.

Ruth is survived by her partner Scott Sherman of Willow Grove; children Sarah Deming (Ethan Iverson) of Brooklyn and Daniel (Nicole) Deming of Glenside; sisters Donna Cartagena, Ellen Greenwold, Lynn Greene, and Amy Greenwold (Edward Leal); grandchildren Grace and Max Deming; nieces Melissa (Richard) Degrassi, Nikki Cartagena (Steve) Roche , Jade Greene (Matthew Piccirilli), and Natalie Pomper; nephews Al Pomper and Miles (Oksana) Greene; cousin Linda (Jack) Fogel; and many beloved grandnieces and -nephews and friends. She was preceded in death by her parents and her brother David Greenwold.

The family plans a celebration of Ruth's inimitable life in the spring. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the National Alliance on Mental Illness or Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust.