Quote:
Originally Posted by BirdDancer
My nephew took me along a path in the woods. His favorite path towards his very favorite spot in the world.
Truth is, it was a tragedy! No one was at fault. Mental illness is just hell. But that's not to say that it must take people.
Attached is the photo I took of my nephew that last time I saw him. Just weeks before we lost him. He was alive. If only I could grab him in a hug again, but I can't. The loss of him, in a physical state, is permanent.
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I am so sorry about your family's loss.
I truly hope that, with time, the tragic feelings of trauma will become less intense for all of you and you will begin to focus more on the happy moments that you were able to share.
I do not remember what your spiritual beliefs are but I believe that your nephew is still with you and his parents in spirit and may even visit all of you periodically. I hope that you all can find ways to heal and comfort yourself. I hope that his parents can find places to talk.
Sometimes having people in our family who have a mental illness or addiction can be very isolating. It is just not the kind of thing that we can talk to everyone about because, I think there are still some people and employers that have fears and misconceptions about mental illness. None of my employers know about my mental illness and I think it is for the best (in my case) not to bring it up but it would be wonderful for some if they could and feel safe about mentioning it (I know we have laws that protect people but law does not completely eradicate internal misconceptions and bias). Unfortunately, I would have to include myself in the category of having had an unhelpful reaction to a loved one in the middle of a crisis. Our society has so much more to learn in this area--myself included!
