From N’Tanya Lee

– February 7, 2026

Merle was a communist auntie in a way I am sure she never planned; a woman freed, through luck and love, hard work and comradeship, from the narrow ideas of womanhood, of aging, of whiteness and what it means to be human in the world we have inherited. She loved comrades tenderly, and embodied fierceness against our enemies that resonated with our class rage, our fighting spirits, our determination to win against our oppressors. She counseled me about family life, about the importance of taking vitamins as I age, and the importance of stepping into hard, scary things for the sake of our dignity and people’s struggle. We shared the despair, injustices and hopes from the work of caring for mothers who’s own mothering had been a far cry from anything romanticized about that precious work of mothering. She helped me start a little text-thread support group of comrades taking up elder care work in different ways, and it helped ease some of the pang of care giving isolation. I have Merle’s voice in my head as one of many ancestors who hold me accountable to the work of being always with and for the working class, never aside or above, in case my touches with bourgeois thinking muddy my clarity and commitment. I loved her, I miss her, and I am a better human and aspiring revolutionary because of her comradeship. 

Merle Ratner presente!

Michelle Group Memories

Chị Mơ ở Niu-Oóc
“Sister Merle in New York”
by Lê Lựu, Nhân dân Sunday May 6, 1990