THE WAY IT IS – Age Sixty Six

Shortly after Mom died I relapsed again and this time my symptoms were really bad; I was
really out of it! I didn’t feel well in other ways too so the doctors at the psychiatric hospital
had some other doctors examine me. They found out that I had developed other medical
problems in addition to my mental illness. They gave me more pills to take and, after many
weeks, I began to feel better. But this time they said I couldn’t go back home. They told me I
would have to live in a nursing home near the hospital where I could get my meals regularly
and where there were people all the time to look after me. It sounded good but it turned out
that everybody else there was a lot older and sicker than I was. A lot of them couldn’t even
get out of bed and those who could just sat in the hall most of the time by the desk. There
was nobody for me to talk to and nothing to do but watch T.V. or sit in the hall with the
rest. After a while I realized that I would never leave. I would stay in that place until the day
I died.