Another Family Death
Jan. 31st, 2025 01:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fabrisseI have five cousins on my father's side of the family; the three around my age are by Uncle's first wife. His only daughter is a year older than Sis and just lost her elder son. My oldest cousin, whom I will call Sonny, died this morning never having left the hospital after his admission for extremely low sodium, pneumonia, strep, and flu.
Cousine barely made it from the west coast in time to say goodbye. The brother between her and Sonny will get there tonight.
Sonny went into the navy at 18. He was discharged for mental health by the time he was 20. Schizophrenia runs on his mother's side of the family. Ships in the 1970s were easy to find drugs on. I knew about "drug-induced schizophrenia" (I'm pretty sure it would be called something else these days) from the time I was 13.
Sonny has been in and out of V.A. and charity facilities since he was released from the military. Uncle and, later, Cousine have looked after his finances so that it was virtually impossible for him to score drugs -- other than cigarettes -- and so that, unlike many of his contemporaries, he always had a roof over his head.
We can say that he smoked himself to death. It's true. We can say that he might have been treated differently if schizophrenia were better understood or if his family had realized he was prodromal when he enlisted. That's also true.
I saw him three years ago, for about five minutes, when we went to Blacksburg for Thanksgiving. The last I saw him prior to that was 1972.
This post brought to you by bronchitis! I stopped coughing two days ago, but my ribs hurt. The doctor has put me on three drugs, plus two shots and a nebulizer before I leave her office. If I'd waited until next week to be seen, it would have been pneumonia no matter how many preventive jabs I've had.
ETA: The memorial service is on Friday. Sis has midterms, so I'll drive up Thursday, hopefully with a cell phone.
Cousine barely made it from the west coast in time to say goodbye. The brother between her and Sonny will get there tonight.
Sonny went into the navy at 18. He was discharged for mental health by the time he was 20. Schizophrenia runs on his mother's side of the family. Ships in the 1970s were easy to find drugs on. I knew about "drug-induced schizophrenia" (I'm pretty sure it would be called something else these days) from the time I was 13.
Sonny has been in and out of V.A. and charity facilities since he was released from the military. Uncle and, later, Cousine have looked after his finances so that it was virtually impossible for him to score drugs -- other than cigarettes -- and so that, unlike many of his contemporaries, he always had a roof over his head.
We can say that he smoked himself to death. It's true. We can say that he might have been treated differently if schizophrenia were better understood or if his family had realized he was prodromal when he enlisted. That's also true.
I saw him three years ago, for about five minutes, when we went to Blacksburg for Thanksgiving. The last I saw him prior to that was 1972.
This post brought to you by bronchitis! I stopped coughing two days ago, but my ribs hurt. The doctor has put me on three drugs, plus two shots and a nebulizer before I leave her office. If I'd waited until next week to be seen, it would have been pneumonia no matter how many preventive jabs I've had.
ETA: The memorial service is on Friday. Sis has midterms, so I'll drive up Thursday, hopefully with a cell phone.
