Miriam Cummings

Cummings, Miriam Zoet Miriam ("Mimi") Zoet Cummings died on Thursday, October 6, 2022, surrounded by the love of her family. Born in 1941 in Bellingham, Washington, Mimi was the second of three daughters of Edna and August Zoet. Her early years were shaped by separation from her parents during the Second World War while her mother was sequestered in a tuberculosis sanatorium and her father served as a field hospital doctor in the South Pacific. In the care of her grandparents and the company of her older sister, she spent the War years in the nearby Dutch community of Lynden. After the War, Mimi's father resumed his medical practice in Bellingham and Mimi excelled in the local schools. Her parents' conviction about the importance of education, including musical training, permeated life in their home. Mimi learned to read music, play the piano and the clarinet, and sing skills that she applied to musical ensembles and choirs throughout her life. She was also imbued with an appreciation for skilled crafts that she experienced in her father's horticultural pursuits, a family friend's pottery studio, and the weaving of the local Lummi Nation. Mimi enrolled at Harvard in 1959. Upon graduating in 1963 with a degree in History, she joined her fiance (Charles "Kim" Cummings) in Colombia, where both served as Peace Corps volunteers in the early years of the program. Married late in 1963, she and Kim completed another term of service in Venezuela and returned permanently to the United States in 1967 to attend graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis. Mimi applied her MAT degree to teaching in the St. Louis public schools before "retiring" to raise a family and move to Kalamazoo after Kim took a faculty position at Kalamazoo College in 1972. Demonstrating the progressive and independent streak that characterized her, she elected natural childbirth and breastfeeding with each of her three children. Mimi also committed to providing her family with healthy and sustainable foods from the family garden and local farms; she canned and froze a variety of fruits and vegetables, brewed beer, and regularly baked large batches of bread. In the same vein, she defied convention by raising her children in a television-free household where reading, instrumental practice, academics, and athletics were prioritized. As a complement to her dedicated parenting, Mimi developed her career as a handweaver. Self-taught, she first mastered traditional patterns before expanding her craft to rug weaving and designs inspired by the color contrasts of the Pacific Northwest, Native American forms, and theological concepts. Her weaving studio was crowded with looms, brilliant skeins of yarn, and great spools of warping linen. Over four decades, Mimi was recognized with multiple awards from state and national fiber organizations. She also wove the fine, intricate cloth for her daughters' wedding dresses and her son's wedding kilt all labors of love. In the course of fifty years in Kalamazoo, Mimi followed current events assiduously and was dedicated to progressive causes. She attended First Presbyterian Church regularly and cherished singing in the choir. In her final years, Mimi and Kim moved to Friendship Village, where they enjoyed the friendship and support of many residents, particularly as her health declined. Mimi is survived by her husband of nearly fifty-nine years, Kim Cummings; three children: Zoe (Troy) Resch (New Haven, CT), Drew (Amy) Cummings (Durham, NC), and Phoebe (Buster) Kantrow (Baton Rouge, LA); nine grandchildren; and her two sisters: Marjory Bankson and Barbara Vidmar. A celebration of Mimi's life will be scheduled for a later date. If desired, donations in memory of Mimi may be made to Centrica Care - Hospice. Joldersma & Klein Funeral Home