Now it was a Sunday afternoon and my mother insisted that I come along and visit my sister in Tara hospital. I was very reluctant to go and insisted that I wanted to stay at home. But my mother told me that we needed to stand together and support Patricia in her time of need.
Just as I expected the institution where my sister was staying at was horrible. It had a miff smell about it and the people walking past stared at us and looked strange, while others gazed at the ground as if we were aliens that had just arrived to come and ship them out.
Finally we entered one of the wards and my sister was sitting next to a tray of sandwiches staring at the floor like she had been at home. Her hair had been combed back nicely by one of the sisters but she looked dopey and obviously heavily medicated.
She walked down the corridor with us to take a seat on an open piece of grass. She never said much really, she only cried and asked to come home. My mother held her hand and told her that it wouldn’t be long before she was released.
Sadly the following week things got suddenly worse. Patricia had climbed up a two story building and had jumped off onto the paving below. Her intention was to commit suicide but she had broken her leg instead.
Sadly her recovery was a slow one and she spent many months in hospital care.
Finally she was released from Tara. She still seemed very heavily medicated and was not at all like the sister I had been quarrelling with my entire life through. She was calm and distant and did not talk much at all.
My mother explained to us that it was all part of her depression and that things would improve.
And they surely did, a few months later my sister was arguing with me again like God had intended her to. She was full of life and I was very happy to have my old sister back. Our entire family lived in the hope that she would remain stable. I guess we were entitled to be optimistic, living in the hope that everything would be just fine.
“We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.” Ray Bradbury
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