My mom had two younger sisters, Jean and Adelle Katherine. Adelle was mentally ill. Or is mentally ill. I'm not sure if she is still alive or not.
My aunt started exhibiting signs of mental illness as a pre-teen. She was my grandfather Dante's favorite child and although he placed all his school-age children in foster care and orphanages, he from time to time "sprung" Adelle and she accompanied him on his wanderings.
By the time she was 17, she had bounced around many foster care homes, orphanages, and whatever alcoholic adventures Dante took her on. She was also seriously mentally ill at this point.
My mom eventually found Adelle when Adelle and Dante drifted to the Detroit area. My mom was alarmed at how far Adelle had deteriorated. She took Adelle to a psychiatrist and eventually had her committed. Not much choice. Adelle was a danger to herself and others.
Adelle went to a residential treatment program at the Ypsilanti State Hospital and started to improve. My mom was married to my dad by that point and as Adelle improved, she and my dad used to have Adelle come visit for week-ends. My parents lived in Highland Park then in a two family flat that they owned. (The Highland Park School District later bought the house from them to build a parking lot for a school there and my parents made a bundle off it, starting their real estate speculation.)
I digress as I am apt to do.
Eventually, Adelle, who was then calling herself Katherine, her middle name, was deemed well enough to go out in the world. Since she was very musically gifted, she decided to go to Detroit Mercy College and study music. She lived in a dorm, went to classes and stayed with my parents on week-ends. She met a man named Bill who was in the service, stationed at the Selfridge base and started a romance with him. Her first romance.
My mom was thrilled. She felt Adelle had been saved from the depths of mental illness and was truly on the right side of things.
Since this is real life and not a movie, of course Adelle started having issues again. Her old behavior started coming back. She was pushing for a commitment (NOTE: Irony) with Bill and he was pulling away due to her increasing bizarre behavior. The culmination of this came when she was staying with my parents one week-end and tried to stab my mom with a steak knife.
She was recommitted to Ypsilanti State Hospital. She was there until the hospital was closed, at which point she was moved to an adult foster care home in one of the worst areas of Detroit. I know, because I used to go with my mom to visit her.
That was some scary shit. She was so obviously insane and had only gotten worse. My mom tried to do something to help her, but the state had cut all funding for the mentally ill and there was little she could do to help. Adelle was diagnosed with schizophrenia but I don't think that was correct. I think it was more likely she had bi-polar disease and was mistreated and it got progressively worse. She had lots of electro -shock therapy while in Ypsilanti. I don't think it helped her at all.
Shame on me, I have no idea if my aunt is alive or not. By the time my mom died, we had stopped visiting Adelle because it was pretty much pointless. She had no idea who we were and it upset her considerably. My mom, bless her heart, still sent her clothes and toiletries and a few bucks. I think it was just too disheartening for my mom to see her sister in that state.
So that's my crazy aunt. I have her yearbooks from Detroit Mercy and letters she wrote because when she wrote letters, she always made a carbon. It's terribly sad to read through them because it becomes so obvious she is losing her tenuous grip on reality. I have a lot of her sheet music. She played the piano.
A sad wasted life.
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