I'm home sick today. I feel absolutely terrible and as often is the case with illness, it brings my thoughts around to a darker, sadder place.
I've been reading all the debate about healthcare reform. I am left feeling such sadness. My family has experienced such tragedy and that tragedy came about as a direct result of the lack of sufficient and affordable healthcare.
I want to put a face on it for you all.
The picture below is of my much loved and much missed sister Debbie. You see, she suffered greatly from mental illness. It debilitated her. It did so to the point that she could barely function, even though she never stopped working. She was a hard worker, a loving and giving person who believed firmly that you have to earn your own living and way in life. She was kind. She cared for others. But she could not battle mental illness alone. She needed help.
We tried in vain for years to get her help. My entire family spent countless sums, everything we could manage, to keep her healthy, to keep her fed and to keep her treatment going. Failing that, we tried to get her placed on disability so that at least she would have medical coverage. And after that failed, and as a last ditch effort, we tried to have her involuntarily committed to a state institution so that she would not harm herself any longer.
At each step in this, barriers were thrown up with the excuse that she is uninsured or underinsured. I literally begged and pleaded with the hospital to keep her. I told them that she was not safe enough to let go.
It did not matter. In the end, before we could get her moved, she managed to take a bottle of pills and kill herself. Now her children are without a mother. Her grandchildren are without a grandmother. I am without a sister. My mother has lost a child in the same year she lost her husband.
Hers is the face of the need for affordable healthcare in this country. You, my friends, who disagree with me - you who love me - remember...
this has touched someone you love.
My family suffers because of this in ways you cannot imagine.
Please try to remember that there are human faces in this suffering. Look at her beautiful smiling face and remember that she is no longer with my family because she did not have adequate insurance.
This is just one story...
but it is mine.
I only hope that it doesn't become your story in the future.
I miss you so much, beautiful. Miss your silly laugh and your voice and the way you ate mashed potatoes for breakfast like they were the best.things.ever.
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