New villagers Karen Russell and Chris Wyatt, with children, Morris, left, and Bobby, right, recently moved to Yellow Springs from Britain. They make their home on Elm Street, from where Karen, especially, enjoys being able to walk to her destinations.

British family pioneers in village

NEW FACES
This is the fifth in an occasional series of articles profiling individuals and families who recently moved to Yellow Springs.

By K. K. Langton

Karen Russell, quilter, and her husband Chris Wyatt, assistant professor of neuroscience, cell biology and physiology at Wright State University, are originally from Manchester, England. On a recent day they happily sipped a “proper cup” of English tea in their large living room in Yellow Springs. (For “proper cup” read: British-brand tea, hand-carried to the New World inside a visiting grandmother’s suitcase, and brewed strong on arrival.) Youngest son, Morris, aged 2, toddled in, sleepy-eyed from a recent nap, and their oldest son, Bobby, aged 5, was away at a “fun fair with his gran.”

Like so many who have come to America before them, Russell and Wyatt left their homeland in search of a better life for themselves and their children. For Wyatt, the possibility of a tenure-track position at an American university and the opportunity to work in a well-funded lab persuaded him to choose Wright State for employment. Wyatt studies how people control breathing.

“I study what makes you breathe,” he said.

Much of a scientist’s time in Britain is taken up with finding the money with which to do research, according to Wyatt, who said the immediate access to generous stores of research money at Wright State enabled him to begin data collection as soon as he arrived in the U.S.

For Russell, the journey to America has been full of challenge and adjustment, all of which she has been eager to take on.

“We feel like we’re pioneers,” she said. “He’s on the cutting edge of science. I’m on the cutting edge of quilting.” Then they laughed and said together, “In the wilds of Ohio.”

Though she has always sewn — from the age of 6 or 7 -— Russell actually came to quilting after a business career in fashion. Quilting, she said, has freed her. It has allowed her to throw out the rulebook and experiment. Her quilts start with a critical mass of fabric and then grow organically from there. Sometimes she will start something, cut it up, rearrange it, and begin again.

“It’s very, very random,” she said. “I couldn’t do it if I had to follow a pattern. I’d die of boredom. I can’t imagine a bigger nightmare.”

Quilting has become Russell’s obsession. She doesn’t see herself as an artist — at least, not yet. For her, quilting is still a business proposition. Most recently, she’s been making “memory quilts” for young women about to go off to college. It’s the custom, in some families in Ohio, to make a quilt from scraps cut from a child’s old clothes, and while the idea is new to Russell, she loves it. She also makes quilts to order. She’s interested in doing fabric swaps and would like to get together with other quilters in Yellow Springs.

Russell’s quilts are on display at the Emporium until the end of June.

Originally taught to sew by a dear friend of the family — a Yugoslavian woman who immigrated to war-ravaged Britain during the height of World War II rationing — Russell learned early on to waste not, want not. She feels this philosophy is still with her. During the present time of economic difficulty, she finds it a helpful perspective to have, since, for her, quilting is a form of recycling. She particularly likes making quilts out of scraps of clothes that have been loved.

One of Russell’s quilts will be raffled off to benefit the Yellow Springs Children’s Community Center. Russell says the YSCCC was incredibly helpful to her personally when she first arrived in Yellow Springs.

“Without knowing anyone here, without grandparents or anyone to help, they stepped in and were wonderful,” she said.

Tickets for the Children’s Center quilt may be bought at the front counter of the Emporium for $1. The winner’s name will be drawn on the final day of the exhibit, June 30. Russell can be reached at 767-0112.

Question: how did this British family end up in Yellow Springs? Answer: a lack of a driver’s license. Russell doesn’t drive, and more importantly, she has no intention of ever learning. Wyatt correctly surmised that in the “Land of the Car” — the United States — his wife’s missing driver’s license might prove problematical. Concerned, the couple began researching towns in Ohio friendly to people who liked to walk or bike. Yellow Springs trumped them all.

“We just feel so lucky,” says Russell. “You can walk to everything in Yellow Springs.”

* The writer is a free-lance journalist for the Yellow Springs News.