I'm Drowning Beneath The Weight Of My Family's Mental Illness
Or at least, sandwiched between uncertainty.
A couple of weeks ago, my mother, who has been living on my couch for nearly 6 months, told me that she lost her Section 8 voucher for subsidized housing.
That means there are even fewer apartments for her to choose from down here in Tennessee. As somebody on a fixed income through Social Security Disability, she is basically limited to Section 42 subsidized housing.
According to my mother, somebody in the local housing office made some filing error, but blamed it on the California office where my mother came from back in November.
It's not for me to say what happened. I am basically just waiting for my mom to leave.
I’ve written a lot about my mother’s mental illness over the past year. Lately, I write about it less because I don’t know what else to say.
This is the woman who raised me. A woman whom I love and appreciate. Yet she is also a woman who has abused and wounded me, sometimes it seems her damage has gone too far beyond any hope of healing.
Over this past month, she has been much harder to live with. She hasn't been to the doctor once since moving to Tennessee. Isn't trying to manage her diabetes. And now…
