Ruth Waldron's Caregiving Relationship with Delia Ortiz

Ruth Waldron's caregiving relationship with Delia Ortiz grew out of a refuge offered to Delia, her brother Eddie, and their mother, Ellie Chavez. During the four years the children lived with Ruth in Tempe, site of Ursula Brink’s murder, she became a dependable parental presence: caring for them day to day, supporting Delia’s education, and remaining part of the family long after the household changed.

A home and a surrogate mother

After Ellie and her children arrived, Ruth welcomed them into her home. The arrangement lasted for the next four years, while Ellie completed the undergraduate program at ASU. Ruth, a physical-education teacher at two Tempe elementary schools, took on much of the children’s daily care and became their surrogate mother while Ellie studied.

Her care was expressed in ordinary, sustained acts. She took Delia and Eddie to ball games, the zoo, and the Arizona State Fair; helped with homework; and attended parent-teacher association meetings when Ellie could not. The outings gave the children a shared life beyond the immediate demands of their household, while Ruth’s involvement at school connected their home life to their education.

Supporting Delia’s education

Delia began school far behind her classmates. She was placed with slower students and largely ignored, but her own abilities and Ruth’s nightly tutoring changed her standing. With that regular help at home, Delia soon rose to the top of her class. Ruth’s contribution was not simply encouragement: it was the repeated, practical work of helping Delia master lessons after school.

That support formed part of a larger contrast in Delia’s childhood. Years later, when Manny Chavez came to take Eddie back to the reservation, Delia was a straight-A student nearing promotion to eighth grade. As a child, she wondered why her father had come for her younger brother but not for her. The evidence does not suggest that Ruth could resolve the family conflict; it shows instead how she provided care and educational steadiness while Delia tried to understand it.

Ellie and Ruth, and Delia’s later understanding

Delia did not understand the full nature of Ruth and Ellie’s relationship until high school. Ruth was a former Benedictine nun with strong ties to an old Boston family; Ellie and Ruth were both described as exiles, Ellie from the reservation and Ruth from her convent and disapproving family. They had been lovers almost from the beginning, after Ruth took the family in. Delia’s recognition placed Ruth’s role as caregiver within a household shaped by the women’s partnership, not merely by a temporary arrangement made while Ellie studied.

In law school, Delia understood more fully why Ellie had yielded to Manny’s demand for Eddie. At the time, lesbian mothers had no rights; resisting could have put both children at risk, while legal conflict might also have jeopardized Ellie’s postgraduate fellowship and a public scandal Ruth’s teaching career. This later knowledge reframed Delia’s childhood questions: the family’s separation was bound up with the precarious position of both women, even as Ruth continued to care for Delia and Eddie.

A lasting family bond

Ruth’s connection to Delia and Ellie outlasted the four years under her roof. During summer vacations, she continued to stay with them wherever they lived. By the time Ruth retired, she and Ellie were living together in a small house Ruth had inherited just outside Cambridge, Massachusetts. Their continued partnership gives the caregiving relationship its long arc: Ruth’s role in Delia’s childhood was part of an enduring family bond, sustained across changing homes and years.