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*Beth* · 07:21 PM

In 1969 my mom spent six weeks IP when my father suddenly left their marriage after 25 years. Mom had a mental illness and she completely fell apart when he left...an understandable reaction. My mom was fortunate in that the hospital where she was IP was safe, and the pdocs there were progressive in their approach to patient treatment. She told me her time there was quiet and relaxing.

My great-aunt, Bertha (age 19), was found wandering naked at night in Central Park (New York City). The year was 1919. Bertha and her family had immigrated from Russian territory, what is now called Ukraine. She spoke Yiddish; her English was very limited. When the cops found her in Central Park she was "confused." What had happened, no one knows...did Bertha remove her clothes herself...was she sexually abused by someone in the park? No one knows, or perhaps no one in the family told.

The cops took Bertha to "The Farm Colony of Brooklyn State Hospital" - which a few years later became Creedmoor State Hospital.

Bertha entered the state hospital at age 19 and remained there for most of her life. In her early 50's she was released and went to live with her older sister and brother-in-law, my grandparents. She died in her mid-50's.

All I have heard about Bertha was that she was a "gentle, soft-spoken woman who was happy when family visited." No one ever knew, or if someone knew never talked about, the reason Bertha spent over thirty years in a state hospital.

I have done fairly extensive research on Creedmoor. It still functions as a state hospital, but when I've attempted to find old records I was told they had "been burned in a fire." So I am left with no knowledge of what my great-aunt's diagnosis was, or what happened to her in Central park. From what I've read, life in Creedmoor was not at all pleasant.

All I know of my great-aunt was that she was kind, loved family, and worked 3 days/week in the hospital laundry. How I wish I could have spoken with her! But she died several years before I was born (in 1962).

Does anyone else here have family that were either IP or spent time in a state hospital? What about mental illness in your family? Any relatives with mental illness?