In my naivete, I imagined those doctors would fix Nancy in no time. She would come back sassier, funnier, and cleverer than ever. Insurance covered none of it, of course. Though, clearly, Nancy was in danger of dying, mental illnesses were not considered to be as worthy of treatment like other diseases. If you needed psychiatric care, you had two choices: pay for it yourself or go to a state institution. I knew that the Menninger Clinic was expensive and that my parents didn’t have the kind of money anymore to pay for that and for our schooling at Regina Dominican, the Catholic all-girls
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