Jessie Wackerman with her daughters, Wendy Swinney and Dawn Schottmiller.One way to describe Westwood Commons resident Jessie Wackerman’s experience raising over 100 foster children in her lifetime would be to compare it to “The Brady Bunch” on steroids.
Jessie met her husband, John Wackerman, a tractor trailer driver who died in 2007, when she moved to Rochester to work for Kodak. Married nearly 60 years, the couple raised hundreds of children in a four bedroom Cape Cod in Scottsville. After trying unsuccessfully to conceive, the couple decided to foster children starting in the 1950s.
“The children were there,” she said. “They needed care. Especially the ones I got. They needed TLC and a lot of it.”
There were so many, Jessie said, they were never able to narrow it down to a firm number. Dawn Schottmiller, one of Jessie’s two adopted daughters, recalls the count exceeding 100 when she moved away to Texas in the 1970s.
“We had children a lot,” Jessie said. “I don’t think we ever had just one.
Their foster children referred to them as Aunt Jessie and Uncle John. Bedrooms contained two or three beds, bunk style. Just like Jessie learned growing up on a farm in Livonia, everyone pitched in.
“Love and rules came together,” she said.
Sometimes the Wackermans would be lucky to get money to support their foster children through various agencies. If she got $20 a week, that was a lot, said Dawn.
“Mom could stretch a meal and make it fun and enjoyable,” said Jessie’s other adopted daughter, Wendy Swinney. “We all had enough to eat.”
John was “fantastic” Jessie said, very hands-on and helpful in raising the children that came to stay with them.
“He was one in a million,” said Jessie. “A gentleman.”
The couple would learn of many of the children through their church. Some would stay with them on the weekends; others would stay for longer periods of time, like Dorothy, who lived with the Wackermans from the time she was about one until she was 16 or 17 years old. She continues to stay in touch.
The Wackermans would be caring for up to 10 foster children at a time, sometimes even babysitting for neighbors. Jessie took in Wendy’s grandfather for a while, and would volunteer to host Fresh Air Kids from New York City.
“There are a lot of people out there who owe their lifestyles to mom,” said Wendy. “She raised so many kids who were in bad situations. I’m so grateful for the life I had and there are so many kids Mom and Dad shaped and helped to form and they had much better lives than they would have without mom and dad.”
With children came many pets. “We had to have animals – dogs, fish, birds, rabbits,” recalls Jessie. “Whatever they wanted – if you take care of it, you can have it.”
A grandmother of three, Jessie admits, fostering children wasn’t easy.
“If you want children strong enough, you have to be strong because you have to learn to accept parts of their relationship with their natural parents,” she said. “God, yes, many tears were shed.”
Having many foster siblings wasn’t unusual; Dawn said she didn’t know any differently. “It never bothered me,” she said. “I just wanted to be sure my sister and I were number one.”
It wasn’t until she was an adult, Wendy said, that she realized how unique her childhood was.
“Not everybody’s parents gave the care and attention we got,” she said. “Maybe material things, but not every family is built the way ours was.”
