Our daughter suffered from severe mental illness all through her teenage years. Three weeks before her high school graduation, she attempted suicide, and was flown to the ICU at Banner Hospital. A few close friends contacted us by text to say they were praying. No one from our church visited her, no one sent her flowers, or helped us with meals.
I was making a two hour trip one way to see her. I had to quit my job. I left my younger daughter and husband home to fend for themselves. No one brought them food, no one invited them for dinner. We were all under a great deal of stress, just as any family would be with someone in the hospital for a long stay. It's just the invisible 'disease ' that people don't nurture you through.
I'll be asked by the church to do meal trains for a new mom, someone having surgery, someone fighting cancer, but not the families in the trenches with our mentally ill kids.
