Sarah by the Sea
Pink flower behind her ear.
Her wavy hair growing out from the latest color, smiling in the photograph, genuinely happy, standing in the water somewhere off the coast of Oregon. Her laugh tickles my ears and my heart.
Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Teen Years
Sarah had suffered with mental illness since her early teens, but it’s hard to know at that age, it could be just living through that freaking awkward stage of life. She tried everything in the book and a few things that specifically weren’t in the book! She couldn’t manage her emotion, and her body wasn’t cooperating, either.
Then we took her to Medical Health Professionals. Initially this gave us hope, but the number and variety of truly dangerous drugs that they pushed onto her frequently had side effects worse than the illness.
Sarah had a serious psychotic break that was frightening to behold. It fractured our small family. When she got out of the psych ward, she sold her car and moved to Portland, Oregon in 2017.
Two years passed, and Sarah kept in occasional contact, usually when she needed help obtaining something. But she was civil, and eventually…
