Elfriede Gisele Smith: October 20, 1928-July 2, 1999. Mum died twenty-five years ago today in a world long time past. The final year of the twentieth century was more or less still analogue because the internet was in its infancy.Harry's Last Stand Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
My teen years and early adulthood were marked by hellish problems of my own, health wise. Like you, a sibling close in years, had a schizophrenic breakdown at the same time.
Unlike your parents, mine didn't have tragic histories. Almost the polar opposite. They had little life experience to draw from, as they had grown up sheltered from the Great Depression . My father just barely missed having to fight in the war.
There's nothing like having an undiagnosed immune disorder playing havoc with your own brain, while sibling is having a psychotic break, to forever alter your perception of reality. I like the way you describe how the damage of years like this within a nuclear family, echo through time.
*Your father was always more optimistic than me. He never grew up in a totalitarian state- and saw how wicked human beings can become when the government permits it*
What your father, and my parents dodged, we will likely have to live through. Your poor mother. She must have been very young during the war years, close to my own mother's age. Sadder still if she retained even a glimmer of a memory of the "before times" It seems like her family was more closely affiliated with the culture and politics of Berlin rather than the hard right Munich crowd.
Anyway, thanks for this somber and useful read. And btw, many of my formative years were spent in a town just 10 miles from Belleville. Spent many a day at the Towers there, with my mother!
Thank you for your thoughtful reading of the essay. We ended up in Belleville after my brother took ill with pulmonary fibrosis in 2009 as he and his wife had a small property north of the city. I was living in Portugal before then with my dad and came back to care for him. Born in Toronto. Cheers, John
My teen years and early adulthood were marked by hellish problems of my own, health wise. Like you, a sibling close in years, had a schizophrenic breakdown at the same time.
Unlike your parents, mine didn't have tragic histories. Almost the polar opposite. They had little life experience to draw from, as they had grown up sheltered from the Great Depression . My father just barely missed having to fight in the war.
There's nothing like having an undiagnosed immune disorder playing havoc with your own brain, while sibling is having a psychotic break, to forever alter your perception of reality. I like the way you describe how the damage of years like this within a nuclear family, echo through time.
*Your father was always more optimistic than me. He never grew up in a totalitarian state- and saw how wicked human beings can become when the government permits it*
What your father, and my parents dodged, we will likely have to live through. Your poor mother. She must have been very young during the war years, close to my own mother's age. Sadder still if she retained even a glimmer of a memory of the "before times" It seems like her family was more closely affiliated with the culture and politics of Berlin rather than the hard right Munich crowd.
Anyway, thanks for this somber and useful read. And btw, many of my formative years were spent in a town just 10 miles from Belleville. Spent many a day at the Towers there, with my mother!
Thank you for your thoughtful reading of the essay. We ended up in Belleville after my brother took ill with pulmonary fibrosis in 2009 as he and his wife had a small property north of the city. I was living in Portugal before then with my dad and came back to care for him. Born in Toronto. Cheers, John
Beautifully written
Always excellent