ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bainy Cyrus is the author of five books. She was born severely deaf in Norfolk, VA, and learned to speak/lipread at Clarke School in Massachusetts. She graduated from Virginia Tech in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in landscape horticulture and worked as a landscape designer for nearly 20 years before deciding to change careers. In 2004, Bainy earned a master’s degree in counseling from Old Dominion University. She worked as a job coach for people with disabilities for fifteen years until her retirement in 2021. Her first book, “All Eyes,” was published in 2005 as an anthology titled “Deaf Women’s Lives: Three Self-Portraits” and won the silver Eric Hoffer award in the memoir category. Then, “All Eyes” was published as a stand-alone edition in 2010 and won two silver awards in the autobiography/memoir category. Next, she self-published “Della on Facebook” in 2012, depicting her year-long daily posts on her Labrador puppy, Della, who passed away of old age in 2023. Bainy lives in Norfolk with her husband, Steve, and their lab rescue, Sydney. She enjoys hiking, biking, pickleball, gardening, and RVing.

TEA & TOIL At The Woman's Club

The historic Martin Mansion, owned by the Woman’s Club of Norfolk since 1925, is facing neglect and bankruptcy after a century of hosting teas, cocktail parties, wedding receptions, college lectures, bridge tournaments, and charity drives. And the club itself has shrunk significantly, almost to extinction with only a small handful of members. Located in a unique semi-circle neighborhood called The Hague, the Martin Mansion is known as “The Woman’s Club” and watches itself intertwined in the histories of the Woman’s Club of Norfolk, the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC), the city of Norfolk, and even America for the past 115 years.

The author narrates her fifty years at The Woman’s Club such as participating in elementary school skits, Christmas caroling, and science fairs in the mansion’s auditorium and then attending cocktail parties and Thanksgiving gatherings on its fancy first floor.

A small group of women fights to revitalize the Martin Mansion and the Woman’s Club of Norfolk, prompting the author to explore their incredible histories under the same roof and surrounded by a unique neighborhood in a coastal city established in 1

All Eyes

In Bainy Cyrus’s All Eyes, she tells about her life growing up in both the deaf and the hearing world. Bainy first attended Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, MA, where she learned to speak and struggled with language development. It was typical for a deaf child to cope with delayed English language in the 1960s and 1970s. After seven years at Clarke, Bainy began to face difficulties in regualr school but eventually overcame obstackes in the hearing world, at times with humor. She also relates the importance of her lifelong friendships with two girls Cheryl and Diane she met at Clarke and how the different paths that they took influenced her as an adult.

Della On Facebook

December 8, R.I.P: My favorite reading glasses, Cause of Death: Malicious Wounding with severe bites and missing parts, 8 Likes, 6 Comments….. Della, as a tiny little seven-week-old puppy, was a surprise for the author’s 50th birthday from her husband Steve so thus began her almost-daily Facebook postings along with occasional pictures, followed by selected creative comments and helpful suggestions from her friends. Imagine sharing a scary story about your puppy eating broken glass and then you receive a comment from someone reassuring that her dog had eaten a beer can and turned out unscathed? Or announcing that you have decided to use a prong collar on your puppy and all the comments rush in with pros and cons? Imagine owning a dog that unlocks the gate at the indoors daycare facility, releasing 30 dogs, and ends up in a viral video and even on the news…In fact, Facebook has brought love and admiration for Della despite all her mischief.

Deaf Women's Lives

Description

Three deaf women with widely varying stories share their experiences in this unique collection, revealing the vast differences in the circumstances of their lives, but also striking similarities. In Bainy Cyrus’s All Eyes, she vividly describes her life as a young child who was taught using the oral method at the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, MA. Her account of the methods used (for example, repeating the same word over and over again, as many as 35 times), animates the extraordinary amount of work performed by deaf children to learn to read and speak. Cyrus also relates the importance of her lifelong friendships with two girls she met at Clarke, and how the different paths that they took influenced her as an adult.

Testimonial

Tea and Toil at The Woman's Club.

In her book on the Martin Mansion and the Woman's Club of Norfolk, Cyrus tells the intertwined stories of the building, the club, and the community -- with the added element of personal connection, making the tale all the more compelling. Her thorough, meticulous research extended to the broader women's club movement itself, providing important context for these layered stories. We're looking forward to adding this valued work to the General Federation of Women's Clubs research library.

What a charming walk through time in this grand old mansion. The author takes us seamlessly through the decades like a waltz in the grand hallway enjoyed by so many years ago.

In this historical account of a long-standing women’s organization in her hometown, author Bainy Cyrus brings a personal tone to the facts in Tea & Toil at the Woman’s Club. Her book shines a light on the considerable accomplishments of The Woman’s Club of Norfolk, its women organizers and volunteers, and the ebb and flow of stability and support of its namesake building. She highlights the origins and celebrated successes of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, now 60,000 members strong, using the backdrop of national events. This book introduces the reader to the historical impact of Women’s Clubs and also raises awareness as to the far-reaching accomplishments and persistent dedication of women to positively transform lives, beginning in the communities they serve and with broad influence nationally and internationally. Tea & Toil offers a worthy glimpse into an essential local and national women’s organization that has an ever-expanding, groundbreaking story to tell.