My Sister Lisa

[Doc]

My sister Lisa had a tragic life. She was found just before christmas on the 22 of December. Nobody had seen her for quite sometime. My parents hadnt spoken to her for two weeks and the priest hadnt spoken to her for 10 days. Which was quite unusual as she used to ring him everyday, some times more than once sometimes many times. The Gardai gained access to her apartment which was freezing cold and found her body. There were no sign of robbery of forced entry, drugs or malicious intent. Lisa simply died because she couldnt look after herself. The Gardai were kind to my parents

Lisa was bright student, gifted artist and fluent in many languages and engaging personality growing up. She won scholarship to the Gaeltacht (Irish summer college), awards at school and was played many instruments including Piano, Piano accordion, tin whistle, violin and mouth organ. She got over 500 points in her LEaving cert and had her choice of colleges. Then it all started to go wrong. She used to hang out with the wrong sort of people. She used to hangout with deadbeat families and the horse dealers daughter. She couldnt settle at university, changing three times in her first semester. She was diagnosed with Schizophrenia but neither she nor my mother would accept the diagnosis. Her mood and decisions became more erratic and volatile.

There were missing years of in and out of hospitals and fixed up accomodation, getting her back from Peru, Nigeria and all over Europe. It is now over. My parents can now rest her at peace. She did constant "spiritual warfare", she was very distressed at the 8th Amendment to the constitution and the life of the unborn. Nobody including the Priest with the exception of my mother said anything good about her personality. Se suffered a lot in life, we suffered a lot.

This is a genetic tragedy in our family, in every family in our line, in every generation, someone always has Schizophrenia and it always ends up the same way they are usually died by their own hand or something they could have physically changed. Myself and my other sister who is a nurse have agreed for the next generation going forward we are going to start to talk about mental health. Lisa died to complications from Starvation so either a heart attack or a stroke at 40.

I would like to think it didnt have to be this way. I would like to think Lisa could have gotten diagnosed when she did, taken medication and lived out a semi normal life. In reality part of the illness is to refuse help, be partially homeless and get involved in abnormal stuff. She is at rest now and it is time to put this dark chapter of our family history behind us.

[The Baron]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

[Doc]

Thanks Baron. It means a lot. Not sure how it is going to catch with me and the rest of the family.