Everything Is Fine

by Vince Granata

our house, but didn’t mention any specific plans

To expect him to find his way back to the hospital, to care, on his own, is as delusional as expecting a man with a broken leg to walk to the ER.

So many people can’t understand this about mental health.

I saw the glinting decal on his window, a fireman’s helmet, faded after twenty-two years. That silver sticker, placed when Tim was a baby, alerted firefighters: CHILD INSIDE.

Very moving in light of the situation

Once, between sobs, Lizzie told me something that was growing increasingly clear. “She’s the only one who could explain this,” Lizzie said. “Mom would know what to say.”

I have said these exact words

I can’t know the answer to this question, Would my mother have danced with me at my wedding? And this, the certainty that I would never find out, that there would be nothing new between my mother and me, descended while I watched Andrew dance with his mother, a new pain, a way I hadn’t hurt before.

🥺🥺🥺