My Mother's Mental Illness

In her best moments, my mother was an attentive parent with serious ambitions for her children. The stress of raising two children alone in New York City and her emergent mental illness eventually caught up with her. My sister and I didn't have a name for Granny's ailment until after she died. On a visit to Jenkins, we met with a psychiatrist who had cared for her and she showed us records that stretch back nearly 40 years to the early 70s. Her stays in American psychiatric facilities began in the 90s, not long after she lost custody of my sister and me.