My family would not talk about the mental illness. I'd ask grandparents, aunts/uncles, etc., "Is there any history of depression in the family?" The answer was always "no." Yet, I now know there was and nobody would talk about it. It was on both the maternal and paternal sides.

My father took his own life when I was 12 y.o. We weren't allowed to discuss it then and nobody mentions him now -- erased from history, but still in my broken heart.


WC