Touched By Madness

In a day when mental illness was hidden behind a closed door, A young girl lived but wished to die; she couldn't take it anymore. No one knew the pain she suffered; always wondering how it would end. Would God see her great distress and take her to Him; this hell transcend? Her own father was the madman, however normal he would seem. Sometimes he lost the softness and, from within, came a demon's scream. Wild and void of all emotion, his eyes unfocused and confused; he beat his daughter almost senseless, for what she never was accused. Her mother made up some transgression to have her daughter pay the price for being closest to her father whenever he was lucid and nice. She loved her father dearly and could never understand why he turned on her so suddenly as if, programmed to raise his hand. One day her father, in a frenzy, beat her head against the wall. She just went limp in his arms; gave up the fight to survive at all. The words she remembers shouting as she began to slip away: "Go ahead and kill me! I don't want to live this way." His mouth dropped open as he came to, almost as if to awaken. He charged out of the room, the both of them clearly shaken. He never touched anyone again. Perhaps, he learned a lesson. His strange behavior was explained years later. He suffered from manic depression. Today we recognize the symptoms and treat it with a special drug. No longer should mental illness be swept beneath a dirty rug. As an adult, the girl is compelled to do what she knows is right: to bring a painful childhood memory from darkness into healing light. January 10, 2018