When Everything Fell Apart

Finding My Way Back After Loss, Heartbreak, and Family Silence. A Story of Grief, Mental Health, Aging, Vision Loss, Homelessness, and Learning to Heal. This is not a story about having all the answers. It is a story about what happens when life seems to take almost everything from you at once. It is about losing parents and people you love. It is about finding your mother dead and then trying to figure out how you are supposed to keep living afterward. It is about losing thirteen family members and dear close friends. It is about watching your health change, being diagnosed with cone-rod dystrophy, and facing the possibility of losing your sight. It is about short-term memory problems and wondering whether you can trust your own mind. It is about becoming homeless. It is about feeling abandoned by people you thought would be there when you needed them most. And it is about your grown children no longer speaking to you while you don't even understand what happened. How do you fix something when nobody will tell you what you did wrong? How do you apologize when you don't know what you're apologizing for? I don't have all the answers. But I have a story. And maybe telling it is one small step toward understanding it.